Gaming/Streaming Setup (2 PCs)

Anonymiter · January 20, 2018

I thought I had a good handle on things but it seems like there's a lot of new offerings these days. It used to be Intel was a no-brainer, but not so much now! I'm mostly looking for some advice on the best options as of right now. This will be something I'll be building for someone in the next few weeks most likely. Not too worried about special deals and sale prices, but wouldn't hurt to have them.

1. Budget & Location

USA - Let's assume money isn't an obstacle so long as the price can be justified. Imagine you have plenty of money but also kind of want to think of retirement some day. Reusing current systems/hardware is ideal but only if it would be near to optimal. No sense replacing something that is working just so long as it doesn't hold anything back.

2. Aim

Streaming gameplay from nearly any genre or new release. One computer needs to be dedicated to streaming and the other should be taking as little impact from the stream as possible. OBS is a requirement. Still not certain on delivery method for stream capture from one system to the other. Capture card isn't out of the question but quality is a concern. Mostly looking into network solutions such as NDI. The idea essentially would be to provide a nearly lossless video stream to the rendering system that would then compress at the highest quality to send to Twitch over a limited internet connection.

3. Monitors
6? The primary gaming system would be running 3 but only one primarily for gaming. It is currently only 1920x1080 60Hz but 2560x1440 144Hz is a likely upgrade. 4K over 60Hz would be ideal but I'm not aware of any real options. Suggestions for a single, easily movable mounting solution (desk mounted?) would be awesome as well.

4. Peripherals
Let's assume these are covered. Recommendations are welcome, though! As mentioned, 6 monitor mounting solution would be great. Sound is already covered. Current case is probably getting replaced. Looking for something like the Fractal Define XL. Mostly so that it's easy to work in and not cramped. Think... something that looks simple and make a NH-D15 look small.

5. Why are you upgrading?

This is something that is turning into a career so having the best setup is desirable. A lot of the time ShadowPlay is required to achieve smooth gameplay and the quality after the necessary compression is miserable. Slower presets for CPU look acceptable but game performance takes a big hit.

Also looking to limit required maintenance. Liquid cooling, AIO cooler, etc. are just not good options for this imo.

6. Current Hardware

i7-6700K, MAXIMUS VIII HERO, GTX 1080, 16GBs (4x4GBs) DDR4, 1TB SSD, 850W 80+ PSU, NH-D15

Jurrunio · January 20, 2018

Get an X99/X299 8 core system and you can stream and game with 1 single machine. Ryzen is cheaper, but itself isnt as good as Intel chips in games.

manikyath · January 20, 2018

use the current hardware as your gaming pc, its more than capable.

for the streaming pc, get something along the line of an r7 1700, *some* form of GPU (usual recommendation is to recycle something thats on the shelf), slap a big cooler on that to make it quiet, and get a well made capture card (usual recommendation goes to epiphan, if they fit the budget.)

past that, display wise, get something that mostly divides into what you're streaming at. with capture cards you're gonna have the least issues when you stick to 60Hz. i like the idea of having a 4K display for the streaming rig, because when you fullscreen OBS studio, you can essentially have two full-resolution stream outputs, and all the tools you want, on a single display.

as for auxilary displays, thats the place where i'd bring up recycling "old" displays again.