These days, there’s a PC for every occasion, including gaming in your living room. With the right tech, you can have an optimized, unobtrusive PC gaming setup seamlessly integrated into your home entertainment system. We’re here to help with product recommendations and general advice that’ll make your selection process easier. Here’s the gear that’ll let you kick back on the couch while gaming with the power of a proper PC.
Get the right machine for the job
The idea that gaming PCs are always huge, hulking towers is an outdated concept. Such a rig likely wouldn’t be a great fit for your home entertainment setup, anyway. That’s why we offer ultra-compact, tiny PCs capable of fitting in just about anywhere, while giving you the processing power you need. Here are a few PC recommendations that can blend in with your living room gadgetry for a seamless experience.
The 2025 ROG NUC is a pint-sized powerhouse
The beastly little 2025 ROG NUC packs up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU inside a body that’s roughly the size of a hardcover novel. It’ll play all the latest AAA games while stealthily hiding beside a Blu-ray player and speakers. You’ll hardly notice it’s there thanks to its excellent thermal design, which keeps noise output low and system temps healthy.
The ROG NUC packs plenty of ports for your connectivity needs as well. These include two HDMI ports, two DisplayPort ports, and numerous USB ports. You’ll have all the I/O options you need to hook up a host of controllers for couch co-op game nights.
Go tiny and portable with an ROG Ally and ROG XG Mobile combo
You can pair our Windows-powered ROG Ally, ROG Ally X, and ROG Xbox Ally gaming handhelds with an ROG XG Mobile eGPU for a truly versatile living room gaming PC solution. With the Ally serving as an ultra-tiny gaming PC and the XG Mobile augmenting its graphics power and port selection, you’ll have a combo act that enables you to play any game you want. The XG Mobile packs up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU alongside 16GB of RAM and I/O options including Thunderbolt 5, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, a LAN port, SD card reader, and two USB 3.2 Type-A ports. It’s ready to connect all your devices and peripherals for the ultimate couch-side gaming session.
The Ally and XG Mobile will hide inside a home entertainment setup and connect to a TV with ease. Plus, you can split them up whenever you want. When it’s time to hit the road, grab the ROG Ally for compact, convenient AAA PC gaming on the go. When you want to turn the Ally or your regular laptop into an absolute gaming monster, you can plug in the XG Mobile. Then unite the XG Mobile and ROG Ally in your home entertainment setup when it’s time for living room PC gaming.
Maximize bang for buck with the TUF Gaming T500 and ROG G22CH
If your home entertainment setup has the aesthetic bandwidth to integrate a small desktop PC, we have stylish machines that offer incredible value.
Our brand-new TUF Gaming T500 is a small, cost-effective way to make the living room gaming PC dream a reality. With its unorthodox desktop graphics card and mobile CPU combination, this rig keeps costs down while providing the performance you need for games. It provides the robust port selection tower PCs are known for, it’s ready to use out of the box, and when the day comes you want to upgrade its components, you can. Plus, it packs up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Dual 16GB graphics card. This makes the T500 especially potent for the price, as all 50 Series cards achieve outsized performance via their Blackwell architecture and AI-powered performance-boosting technology.
Last gen’s ROG G22CH is another small and capable option that’ll keep costs down while providing you with a worthy living room gaming PC. Packing up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Dual 12GB graphics card, this little power tower is more than capable of keeping up with the latest games.
Build your own living room gaming PC
If you want to make a personal statement, build your own tiny living room gaming PC. We offer plenty of relevant components, such as our mini-ITX motherboards and compact ASUS Dual graphics cards. These parts are expressly designed to fit in ultra-small desktops. Building your own tiny rig is the way to go if you want the absolute most bang for your buck with a PC tuned to your specific needs.
Grab a controller for gaming on the couch
Gaming on the couch with a controller isn’t just a console experience. PC gamers do it all the time. And here at ASUS, we make the couch-friendly PC gaming experience the best it can be with the ROG Raikiri Pro. This controller offers tri-mode connectivity, so whether you want to go wireless with a 2.4GHz connection and USB-C receiver or Bluetooth, or stay wired via USB-C, you have options. No matter what you choose, you’ll be able to sit away from your PC, across the living room. With up to 48 hours of battery life, you don’t have to worry about frequent charging, either.
The Raikiri Pro features programmable, customizable buttons that you can tweak in Armoury Crate. The same goes for the Raikiri Pro’s customizable OLED panel, which can provide useful information or display cool animations — the choice is yours. And if you need a controller that can serve both your gaming PC and your Xbox console, the Raikiri Pro’s ready to rumble.
Don’t forget, there’s a good chance your gaming PC will play nicely with whatever controller you have lying around. Most modern games offer built-in controller support, and Steam’s Big Picture mode is perfect for navigating your library with ease. And there are plenty of other free third-party apps that will help you navigate the desktop with a joystick and buttons, if you so desire.
Pick up a wireless keyboard, mouse, and gaming headset
If you play esports titles or twitch-reflex shooters, a gamepad might not cut it. That’s where compact, lightweight wireless keyboard and wireless mouse combos come into play, providing the extra precision you need to stay competitive.
Grab a compact pair of peripherals like the ROG Azoth X 75% keyboard and ROG Harpe Ace Mini mouse, and you’ll have no problem fitting both on a tiny lap desk. That’s an ideal way to score our PC peripherals’ unparalleled precision from the comfort of a living room’s couch.
Both the Azoth X and ambidextrous Harpe Ace Mini feature tri-mode connectivity and robust battery lives that’ll keep you going for countless gaming sessions. They both benefit from ROG SpeedNova technology, keeping wireless latency to an absolute minimum. And with the ROG Polling Rate Booster, both can top out at 8K wireless polling rates for peak responsiveness.
You can learn more about the Azoth X’s particularly extensive feature set, such as its mod-friendly south-facing PCB design, here.
Also be sure to grab a wireless headset for esports-grade living room gaming. Our ROG Delta II and ROG Pelta wireless gaming headsets will give you everything you need to go pro.
For the Delta II and Pelta, tri-mode connectivity and incredible battery lives are just the tip of the iceberg. Both of these headsets pack 50mm ROG titanium-plated diaphragm drivers and a refined wireless signature for incredible audio. Their 10mm super-wideband boom microphones ensure teammates hear you loud and clear. And both headsets are platform agnostic. Whether you want them for your gaming PC, console, or mobile device, they’ll provide an unparalleled audio experience. Maximize wireless battery life with the Delta II or put a premium on comfort with the ultra-light, 309-gram Pelta.
If your living room doesn’t have a surround-sound setup already installed, check out our virtual surround sound guide. It details how to elevate your ROG gaming headset experience so that you get the best audio possible.
Stay connected in your living room
If your PC gaming activities include hardcore esports play or constant online multiplayer, you’re going to want the best internet connection. Going wired with Ethernet or having your router in the same room as your gaming PC is ideal, but those options aren’t always possible for living room setups. That’s why you’re going to want a router capable of producing the strongest signal strength possible. Our ROG Strix GS-BE18000 gaming router uses WiFi 7 technology, meaning that even if it’s a few walls removed from the action, it’ll give you the low-latency connectivity you need to thrive.
Make sure your gaming PC supports WiFi 7 so you can capitalize on your router’s potential. The 2025 ROG NUC, mentioned earlier in this article, is WiFi 7-ready, so it’s an ideal companion for the latest router technology. We also have plenty of WiFi 7 motherboards if you’re planning on the DIY route.
Prep your living room for glory
Don’t forget the final touches when perfecting your living room PC gaming setup. For example: make sure your TV is ready for gaming.
If your TV’s max refresh rate is 60Hz, you’re never going to see more than 60 FPS in your games no matter how good your rig is. So the higher the refresh rate, the better. Adaptive Sync is a good feature to look for in TVs, too. It’ll make sure your screen automatically syncs its refresh rate with your PC’s output to reduce stuttering and screen tearing. And if your TV has a Game Mode to cut down on HDMI input lag, use it.
Also make sure your sound system is ready for the needs of gaming. We discussed headphone options earlier in this article but consider investing in a proper surround sound system for headset-free action. Whether you want immersive horror game experiences or solo queue in esports titles like Call of Duty, you’ll want a rich, multidirectional soundscape.
Once you have these items squared away, you’re all set to build the living room gaming PC setup of your dreams.