What do you need for Xbox One X? From 4K TVs to the best sound systems and more

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We show you how to prepare your living room for the Xbox One X, so you can take full advantage of its potential

The Xbox One X is no ordinary box. Microsoft is changing the game with the most powerful console to ever hit the market. Featuring six teraflops of graphical processing power, 326GBs of memory bandwidth, and plenty more maddeningly huge specifications that we can barely understand, the Xbox One X is going to make your games look and play better than ever before - check out the list of Xbox One X enhanced games.

To get the most out of this premium product, you are going to need to make radical improvements to your living room set-up; what’s the point of buying a console capable of pushing out True 4K graphical fidelity if you’re running it through your old 1080p set? New TV, better audio and some improved Xbox services – you’ve got a lot to do if you want one. No, don’t cry, because OXM is here to help you through it all. Don’t say we never do anything nice for you.

1. Buy a 4K TV

If you want to see your games running in retina-melting, stunning ultra-high resolution fidelity, you’re going to need a stunning ultra-high resolution telly – though that, we’re afraid, will rip a stunning ultra-huge hole in your wallet. If you’re on the look out for a 4K TV to complement your new system, pay particular attention to the input latency (ideally, 35ms or less) and whether it supports HDR (yes please). We recommend either the Samsung MU9000 or Sony X9OOE if you’re looking for great performance on a modest budget.

The best 4K TVs you can buy for gaming in 2017

2. Sound Support

Here’s the catch with these fancy UHD TVs: while the picture quality might be crystal clear – a huge leap over the 1080p sets you’ve been dealing with for a decade – the on-board audio is almost always notoriously poor. But don’t settle for second best, look into investing in some quality audio equipment – and it doesn’t have to break the bank. If you’re okay with gaming in isolation, we like to turn to Turtle Beach for our headphone needs. Failing that, Razer has an affordable soundbar that will get the job done.

The best gaming headsets
The best surround sound systems for gaming

3. Personalise your Experience

You are essentially buying an Xbox One X to show off, aren’t you? Trust us, your friends are going to get one look at Crackdown 3 and they are going to get weak at the knees – so why stop there? Roll on over to Xbox Design Lab and you’ll be able to create your very own custom controller, tinkering with the colour configurations and even going as far as inscribing your Gamertag onto it to create a super sleek pad. Hell, make something audacious if you want to! Go on, you know you deserve it.

The best Xbox One controllers and accessories

4. Get Game Pass

Look, Microsoft may have broken the rules when it comes to console generational cycles, but it doesn’t discriminate. Want to play your old favourites – from Halo 5: Guardians to Phantom Dust (okay, maybe not Phantom Dust) – on your new machine? More power to you pal. Xbox Game Pass costs £7.99 a month and gives you access to over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles, with new titles switching in every month. The Xbox One X is pricey, so this should help alleviate the burning desire to buy new games every other week.

5. Prepare for Patches

‘It’s time to update.’ The bane of our modern, busy lives, are we right? Hah hah, good times, good times. But hey, listen here, that meme isn’t going away anytime soon. If you want your games to look killer, then they are going to come with some killer install file sizes. Forza Motorsport 7 is coming in hot with a 100GB download; it’s pretty cray-cray, to be honest, so we recommend investing in either some better broadband or perhaps some of those adult colouring books to help pass the time.

6. Buy an Xbox One X

You’ve got the TV, the audio and all of the extras you could ever hope to have, but it still feels like your living room is missing something, right? There’s a hole there that you haven’t quite filled. Ah, that’s right, you should probably get yourself an Xbox One X to take advantage of all of this fantastic new technology. 

Here's where you can order the Xbox One X Scorpio Edition right now

This article originally appeared in Xbox: The Official Magazine. For more great Xbox coverage, you can subscribe here.

Josh West
Josh West
Editor-in-Chief, GamesRadar+

Josh West is Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+. He has over 18 years of experience in both online and print journalism, and was awarded a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Feature Writing. Josh has contributed to world-leading gaming, entertainment, tech, music, and comics brands, including games™, Edge, Retro Gamer, SFX, 3D Artist, Metal Hammer, and Newsarama. In addition, Josh has edited and written books for Hachette and Scholastic, and worked across the Future Games Show as an Assistant Producer. He specializes in video games and entertainment coverage, and has provided expert comment for outlets like the BBC and ITV. In his spare time, Josh likes to play FPS games and RPGs, practice the bass guitar, and reminisce about the film and TV sets he worked on as a child actor.