Min. Specs for Game Streaming

[Calico Morgan]

Hey everyone,

     I've returned for more help since you've all gotten me through my first build with great success. However, now it's finally time for my brother to upgrade from his ancient laptop with only Intel integrated graphics, to something that can handle more gaming, and streaming out as well. 
     Where I made a very high end PC, my bro just got his first proper job and has a budget at around $800US. He wants to be able to play games like Borderlands 2, Forza Horizon 3, and Osu! without drops in performance (he can't even launch Forza on his current potato). In addition, he's really interested in streaming Osu! as he's quite high up in the rankings and is part of a tight community of competitive players and streamers. With his use case out of the way, let's get to the big question here:
What is the cheapest yet effective PC build for streaming at 720p 60fps, and also one for 1080p 60fps..? I'm interested in seeing what the difference is between the two. Don't worry about his internet connection, I've got that covered. 

 

     I should add one very important thing: besides his budget, he's very particular about size. It MUST be a mini ITX. He moves around a lot, to and from schools and stuff, so we want a super small form factor. He has no interest in overclocking at all, so stock coolers should help with the form factor thing. 
     I'll link to my amazon list for this build so far so I can show you what I was thinking. My issue is I'm not too familiar with minimum specs or anything when it comes to streaming games. I didn't have to worry about that, I just got whatever massive high end CPU I liked at a fair price to performance level. Thoughts? https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/X181WA4Z8YX8 

     Thanks in advance for any replies. Let me know if what I have so far in relation to known minimum specs for streaming games on Twitch is on the right track. I'm interested to see what you need in terms of hardware performance to stream games like Osu! and stuff. 

[SnowyMus]

If we're talking minimum specs, you can get away with using that 1050 Ti for streaming at something like 720p 60 FPS @ 3500 kbps using NVENC. It's not going to be quite as good as using x264, but it'll still be most certainly watchable and will have little impact on gaming performance.

 

For 1080p 60 FPS, I'd probably bump it up to an Ryzen 5 1600 and then overclock that if you're going to be playing games on the same machine. You could also opt for using a capture card and completely offloading the streaming to a PC separate from the PC you're gaming on, but that's going to cost you a bit more money. Certainly not something in your budget.

 

Lastly, you may be able to save about $15 or so by getting a B350 Mini ITX board, if you're willing.

[SquintyG33Rs]

for streaming on the cheap you would stream with NVENC and that doesn't take any performance to encode (or almost)

it doesn't look the best but it works and won't cost you extra.

 

so focus on what gaming performance you want to achieve and don't worry about the streaming.

if high quality streaming becomes more important then consider reevaluating the budget

[Cyracus]

6 cores, 12 threads would definitely help with streaming while gaming, 4c, 8t might be able to do some streaming with h264 encoding set to fastest, but stream quality is gonna take a sizable hit and/or frames will be dropped

took your parts list and did a little tweaking, I don't know if the board is any good tbh, and everything will be better if the cpu is bumped up to 3.7 ghz which the stock cooler should handle just fine, up to you and your bro  https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yKMxyf 

[Calico Morgan]

1 minute ago, Kavawuvi said:

If we're talking minimum specs, you can get away with using that 1050 Ti for streaming at something like 720p 60 FPS @ 3500 kbps using NVENC. It's not going to be quite as good as using x264, but it'll still be most certainly watchable and will have little impact on gaming performance.

 

For 1080p 60 FPS, I'd probably bump it up to an Ryzen 5 1600 and then overclock that if you're going to be playing games on the same machine. You could also opt for using a capture card and completely offloading the streaming to a PC separate from the PC you're gaming on, but that's going to cost you a bit more money. Certainly not something in your budget.

 

Lastly, you may be able to save about $15 or so by getting a B350 Mini ITX board, if you're willing.

That definitely lines up with what I've been seeing, thank you. I'll see if I can bump up that CPU. Unfortunately the alternative is definitely out of his budget, as you said. 

Oddly, that motherboard is the cheapest AM4 mini ITX that I could find. It's on sale for a bit down to $89. Odd that it's cheaper than a B350. Seems to be a shortage of mid tier AM4 mini ITX boards too, no? 

[Jurrunio]

27 minutes ago, Calico Morgan said:

 https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/X181WA4Z8YX8 

1. Biostar isnt a brand you want to go for. It's in the third line. Might as well spend a bit less for a B350 one as well

 

2. I wouldnt buy premium 1050ti like this one. I'd stick to a small single fan one instead

 

3. The case: It's larger than a typical shoebox so I dont think it's really small.

 

4. Amazon only?

[SnowyMus]

Just now, Calico Morgan said:

That definitely lines up with what I've been seeing, thank you. I'll see if I can bump up that CPU. Unfortunately the alternative is definitely out of his budget, as you said. 

Certainly understandable.

 

Just now, Calico Morgan said:

Oddly, that motherboard is the cheapest AM4 mini ITX that I could find. It's on sale for a bit down to $89. Odd that it's cheaper than a B350. Seems to be a shortage of mid tier AM4 mini ITX boards too, no? 

Ouch. Yeah, prices for Mini ITX boards for AMD Ryzen are rather high compared to some Intel boards, surprisingly. If you value the small form factor, it could be worth it, though.

[Calico Morgan]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

1. Biostar isnt a brand you want to go for. It's in the third line. Might as well spend a bit less for a B350 one as well

 

2. I wouldnt buy premium 1050ti like this one. I'd stick to a small single fan one instead

 

3. The case: It's larger than a typical shoebox so I dont think it's really small.

 

4. Amazon only?

Nah not amazon only. The board on there has a note linking to newegg where it's on sale for super cheap. I'm open to stuff. 
 

 

3 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

6 cores, 12 threads would definitely help with streaming while gaming, 4c, 8t might be able to do some streaming with h264 encoding set to fastest, but stream quality is gonna take a sizable hit and/or frames will be dropped

took your parts list and did a little tweaking, I don't know if the board is any good tbh, and everything will be better if the cpu is bumped up to 3.7 ghz which the stock cooler should handle just fine, up to you and your bro  https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yKMxyf 

That's pretty impressive! Looking at this I'm thinking it's a pretty freaking sweet deal. I really wanted to get him that 1600. Great CPU. Also I forgot to mention, I got the PSU already. EVGA 80+ bronze for $15 during a cyber monday flash sale. Helped cut the budget a bit lol
Anyway, thanks for that. The RAM speed boost is great, it was really bothering me that I could only find 2400MHz at that price. 

 

1 minute ago, Kavawuvi said:

Certainly understandable.

 

Ouch. Yeah, prices for Mini ITX boards for AMD Ryzen are rather high compared to some Intel boards, surprisingly. If you value the small form factor, it could be worth it, though.

Yeah I'm pretty open for the mobo. TBH I've already saved some serious cash in a couple spots like the PSU which I have already. Those savings could certainly go to the motherboard.

[Cyracus]

9 minutes ago, Calico Morgan said:

That's pretty impressive! Looking at this I'm thinking it's a pretty freaking sweet deal. I really wanted to get him that 1600. Great CPU. Also I forgot to mention, I got the PSU already. EVGA 80+ bronze for $15 during a cyber monday flash sale. Helped cut the budget a bit lol
Anyway, thanks for that. The RAM speed boost is great, it was really bothering me that I could only find 2400MHz at that price.

ok, without the psu you could get this mobo https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nG98TW/asrock-ab350-gaming-itxac-mini-itx-am4-motherboard-ab350-gaming-itxac  power delivery looks to be the same as they used on their x370 mini itx board (I'm not finding the specs so I can't say for sure, just that they look the same) But yeah, glad I can help 

[Calico Morgan]

15 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

ok, without the psu you could get this mobo https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nG98TW/asrock-ab350-gaming-itxac-mini-itx-am4-motherboard-ab350-gaming-itxac  power delivery looks to be the same as they used on their x370 mini itx board (I'm not finding the specs so I can't say for sure, just that they look the same) But yeah, glad I can help 

Yup, your CPU and RAM upgrades work in the budget no problem. Everything comes out about the same price only much better suited to streaming. I'm glad I asked about this.

[16bit]

11 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

ok, without the psu you could get this mobo https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nG98TW/asrock-ab350-gaming-itxac-mini-itx-am4-motherboard-ab350-gaming-itxac  power delivery looks to be the same as they used on their x370 mini itx board (I'm not finding the specs so I can't say for sure, just that they look the same) But yeah, glad I can help 

I saw some reviews the Biostar's X370 saying that the MOSFET temps were really high, high enough to prevent you for overclocking your CPU.

[Calico Morgan]

Just now, Seriouswhyso said:

I saw some reviews the Biostar's X370 saying that the MOSFET temps were really high, high enough to prevent you for overclocking your CPU.

Lol that's really freaking stupid...yeah I just added the Asrock one to my list instead. Don't mind spending a tad more for a trusted brand. 

[Calico Morgan]

By the way: monitors. He said he's just gonna get something, but he's talking about 1080p 144Hz displays. Any issues with the 1050Ti handling that output? 

[Jurrunio]

You shouldnt buy any EVGA 80+ Bronze units. All but the B2 sucks (not like B2 is good either, just mediocre).

3 hours ago, Calico Morgan said:

By the way: monitors. He said he's just gonna get something, but he's talking about 1080p 144Hz displays. Any issues with the 1050Ti handling that output? 

Other than Osu, other games wont go much further than 60fps.

[Calico Morgan]

On 12/6/2017 at 10:35 PM, Jurrunio said:

You shouldnt buy any EVGA 80+ Bronze units. All but the B2 sucks (not like B2 is good either, just mediocre).

Other than Osu, other games wont go much further than 60fps.

Honestly with the barely 215 watts he'll be drawing, max, I'm not worried about psu. I agree when it comes to higher powered systems that higher quality psus are a must. 

And I told him it'll pretty much just be osu. He's okay with that. 

[Jurrunio]

4 hours ago, Calico Morgan said:

Honestly with the barely 215 watts he'll be drawing, max, I'm not worried about psu. I agree when it comes to higher powered systems that higher quality psus are a must. 

And I told him it'll pretty much just be osu. He's okay with that. 

Even low powered ones do need a good PSU (in terms of quality, not wattage). That's like saying someone can use a bad heart surgery because he doesnt do sports.