Essential system extras that make great gifts

An exceptionally well-designed 34-inch monitor, the Samsung CF791 is great for everyday use and especially nice for any gamer you know who has a relatively recent AMD Radeon card, thanks to its FreeSync support.

See more of CNET's Holiday Gift Guide picks here.

It's not terrific for simply working or web surfing, but the LG 34UC89G is a great monitor for gamers with Nvidia cards who want more screen real estate.

The Razer Ornata Chroma was designed as a gaming keyboard, but forget that -- it's one of the best keyboards for fast typing we've encountered, with a terrific feel and gamer-level backlight controls that help immensely for people who work in the dark. It's solid for gaming, too, but some of your giftees might be purists who sneer at anything but mechanical keys, and this is a mechanical/membrane hybrid. 

24-inch screens are a bit small these days, but for a kid or someone working in a cramped space, they do the job -- plus they're budget-friendly. This Dell UltraSharp 24 has above-average display quality.

The latest version of Wacom's pen tablet for artists, the 2017 version of the Wacom Intuos Pro has a much better feel and a higher level of pressure sensitivity that any creatives on your gift list would love. If they like to sketch old-school style on paper, there's a Paper Edition of this that will let them draw with pen and paper and have the strokes automatically digitized.

Multiplayer games require fast, customizable routers; if you know people who live and breathe online or multiplayer games, the Asus ROG GT-AC5300 is a router they would want.

Give MacBook users the gift of touchscreen functionality with the AirBar, a USB attachment that uses sensors to fake touchscreen capabilities.

27 inches is a current sweet spot for monitor sizes, and Dell's mainstream UltraSharp 27 model makes a great everyday display for almost anyone.

For a general-purpose model that has more customization options than the typical home router, the Synology RT2600ac rises above the rest. 

Almost everyone can benefit from fast external storage in some way or another, and the Western Digital My Passport SSD is a relatively inexpensive but good bet for everything except backup -- it doesn't come in high-enough capacities for that.

The HTC Vive is the best VR option at the moment, a great choice for the VR enthusiast with a lot of space to roam.

At its lower price, the Oculus Rift makes a great gift for anyone wondering what all the fuss about VR is and doesn't have the expansive space needed by the HTC Vive.

Know someone who works in an open plan office, cube farm or noisy home office? Give your friend this great set of wireless noise-canceling headphones. The QuietComfort 35 II headphones have Google Assistant built in, too, and because they're wireless you don't have to worry if you forget to take them off before you roll away from your desk.

Another set of wireless headphones for the wide-open-office worker, the Sennheiser PXC 550 Wireless are a great alternative to the Bose QuietComfort 35 II with a different design that might be more ear-friendly for some people.

Another office-friendly set of headphones, the BackBeat Sense model adds the trick of being about to connect to two devices -- like your computer and your phone -- and switch between them, plus it has a great dual-microphone headset.

For gamers, the G533 wireless headset offers wireless surround-sound headphones you can use across the house from your PC, with a boom mic for voice chat, a comfy fit and long battery life. Plus, it has a terrifically stable connection.

On a tight budget? You can still get the K360, a QWERTY keyboard powered by two AA batteries that uses Logitech's "Unifying" wireless USB dongle -- which also communicates with a Logitech mouse. Yes, it's a laptop-style design without much "travel" in the keys, but it's a good deal and works equally well with Windows PCs or Macs.

Another low-budget choice is the TL-WR841N, a basic router for friends who might be living in small spaces.

The Logitech M510 is a slick midrange mouse with seven programmable buttons and the company's convenient Unifying Receiver, which can pair multiple peripherals using a single microreceiver. 

One annoyance with newfangled lightweight laptops or hybrids is when they save space by only offering USB-C connectors, which means you need an adapter to transfer files using a common thumbdrive. This handy SanDisk model has both USB-C and standard USB-A connectors and it's a cheap but useful add-on for someone's new computer.

If you do know a mechanical-keyboard purist, the Alloy FPS is a space-conserving (while still having a number pad) model with Cherry MX Blue switches that won't break your budget. 

The Google Wifi mesh system is easy to set up, fast and relatively inexpensive, making it a great gift choice for people who need to extend the reach of their Wi-Fi.

Though not nearly as cheap as Google's option, the Orbi home Wi-Fi system is an excellent gift for those living in a large home with its wide coverage. Plus, it delivers great performance and supplies a full feature set.

See more of CNET's Holiday Gift Guide picks here.

This $49 book-style case, the size of a hefty paperback, is tailored for Apple's new USB-C-only MacBooks. As those laptops have only one kind of port, you'll probably need a bunch of dongles and adapters. For a small accessory case, it fits a lot, including the power brick. 

See more of CNET's Holiday Gift Guide picks here.