Setting Up Your Streaming PC: A Guide to Offloading Load and Achieving Great Gaming Performance

When it comes to setting up a streaming PC, one of the most important things to consider is how you're going to offload the load. In this case, we'll be discussing two PC streaming setup where the second computer takes on a lot of the workload, allowing your main PC to focus on gaming performance.

**The Basics of a Streaming Computer**

When it comes to choosing a streaming computer, there are some basics that you need to keep in mind. Generally speaking, a 4-core processor with 8 threads is sufficient for encoding and other tasks that come up during a stream. However, if you're planning on doing more advanced things like background deletion or green screen effects, you may want to consider a higher-end CPU.

One of the most affordable options out there right now is the Ryzen 5 2600, which can be picked up for around $120 on Amazon. Another option is the Ryzen 7 3600, but if budget isn't an issue, you can always go for an 8-core Intel or AMD processor.

**CPU Encoding Options**

If you're planning on doing CPU encoding, there are a few options to consider. These include using the CPU's built-in encoder, which is fine for simple streams, or using a dedicated encoder like x264. The x264 encoder is capable of producing much better results than the default encoder, but it does require more power and can be more difficult to set up.

**Memory Requirements**

When it comes to memory requirements, 8 gigs of RAM is generally sufficient for most streaming setups. However, if you're planning on doing high-end encoding or other resource-intensive tasks, you may want to consider 16 gigs or more.

One option that's worth considering is the GTX 1650 Super, which has the Turing encoder and can be used as a standalone streaming PC. This is especially useful for people who already have a spare computer lying around but don't need it for anything else.

**Closing Thoughts**

When it comes to setting up a streaming PC, there are a lot of things to consider. In this guide, we've covered the basics of choosing a CPU and memory, as well as some options for encoding and other tasks. However, there's still more to cover, especially when it comes to specific settings like N-value and x264 OBS settings.

If you're new to streaming, it can be overwhelming to figure out all the different settings and options available to you. That's why we've linked up a video that covers some of these topics in more detail, as well as other resources and links down below.

**Additional Resources**

For those who want to learn more about setting up their stream, there are plenty of resources available online. From tutorials on how to set up OBS Studio to guides on how to create custom backgrounds and effects, there's something for everyone. Be sure to check out the links in the description below for all these resources and more.

In terms of specific gear recommendations, we'd love to hear from you! What kind of streaming setup do you have? Are there any specific components or settings that you would swap out or recommend against what's been suggested here? Drop a comment down below and let us know. We're always happy to hear from our viewers and provide more advice and guidance on setting up the perfect stream.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's really easy for streamers to get lost in a sea of products when it comes to buying gear to upgrade to to start out with or to just use for their streaming so today I've got a little buying guide for you guys to talk about the different products that I think you guys should get at every level my name is Chris that is coalition gaming and today I'll be your stream technician real quick if you're new around here if you into PC hardware tech gaming stream tutorials and all sorts of stuff like that make sure you hit that subscribe button hit that like button we'd really appreciate it anyways let's get to the video if you're just starting out or you're just a streaming hobbyist looking for a decent setup these are the things to get first thing a good USB microphone now headset microphones have made strides in how good they sound but to really have that set up to really have that like feel of a streamer when you're doing this sort of stuff a really good USB mic especially on a boom arm is definitely a thing to get so with that being said I like to recommend the fine fine k66 9b especially because USB microphones are just simple the if you care about simplicity in your setup a microphone like this is great it has a volume knob right on it so you can control the volume output of that microphone right on it it has a really good swivel mechanism and it is able to be mounted on the boom arm so you could really isolate noises from tapping on the keyboard or tapping on the desk instead of just having a microphone sitting on there which it would reverberate through and the boom arm really does help but the microphone itself in the test that we that we've done if you want to watch that by the way it'll be linked right over here it actually sounds really freaking good for 30 bucks so yeah that'll be linked down the description below however if you wanted a microphone to carry forward in your streaming endeavor there are two microphones out there that are worth looking at that would be the samson qtu and the audio technica at2020 5 USB those microphones have both USB and XLR and if you grow with your setup that XLR is definitely going to come in handy this absent QT new comes in at around $60 and the Audio Technica comes out and had around $90 so it's up to you what you guys think will be more worth it they both sound really good and that you can't really go wrong with either selection the next thing to get would be a microphone boom arm I mentioned this previously already but I'm just gonna mention it again for importance they can really help with canceling out reverberations through the desk and stuff onto the mic so definitely get one of those they also give you a bit of a pro look podcaster look streamer look they're nice to have and when you have the mic able to be pushed out of the way or just up on the stand like that it's a good feeling additionally if the mic arm comes with the shock mount and you can mount your mic into the shock mount on it you'd be even better fortunately they're not all that expensive for a basic one that can hold up most of these microphones you're probably looking at spending anywhere between 8 to $15 for one so as far as cost goes this is probably one of the cheapest things that you can get that really helps overall now you're going to want a decent starter camera and honestly that comes down to the venerable Logitech c920 it can do 1080p 30 720p 30 I'm not sure if we can do 720p 60 but either what whatever the case is but that's still fine it looks good still and if you properly lit and you've got all that going on then it's definitely still of relevant webcam in 2019 which is kind of sad considering that came out like seven years ago but USB webcams are what they are right now they usually go for around 50 bucks so that's still not a bad price to get going now the most important thing that you can do when it comes to trying to make your stream look good is lighting a lot of people they don't really pay attention too much to the lighting when they set up a webcam and that can cause all sorts of problems right now I have multiple lights turn on I have a big studio light back over there I have an LED panel over there then I have a lamp that's the same color as everything over there just to get this to look good I mean I even have sending the ceiling fan light on the sort of light the top of my head lighting is super important when it comes to cameras and they perform better with the more light you give them now the way webcams work in their automatic modes is that the darker that your lighting situation is the more it tries to adjust for that and you get a grainy err signal it looks all sandy and grainy it's it's not good and then on top of that your a frames per second on the webcam will look terrible with bad lighting as well because that's one of the ways it compensates it runs at a lower fps so it can bring in more light per frame to help make you look a little clearer but that will affect the overall smoothness of that webcams performance and you don't want that you want it to run at its 30fps so it's smoother than it looks good you need good lighting now you may have heard of the Olga dokey lights they're expensive they do good for what they are though especially with the stands that they come with however there are other light options aside from that that will do the trick first would be the howeitat super slim dimmable 5500 K LED light panel they go for around 26 dollars on Amazon and they get the job done pretty decently I imagine nice white daylight 5500 k le D panel won't take up too much space and they also won't get too hot the fact that it's dimmable is also helpful then there's also the godox 3300 K to 5,600 K LED panel this goes for around 42 dollars and this one is from a more sort of recognizable brand as far as camera gear goes and it also is at color temperature adjustable so it's not just the one daylight color you can also dim it but you can adjust the color so you can have a warmer look or a cooler look depending on what you're after now in both cases you'll need a way to mount these or at least to put them on your table have them held up at a decent you know height I guess and a tabletop tripod with a cold shoe adapter will get that job done for that I suggest the crazy photo portable tripod goes for about 16 dollars on Amazon and as a matter of fact I use one to hold up my ring light back there and it's pretty nice works just fine but you'll need one for every light that you have in your setup so keep that in mind as well the cold shoe adapter is about eight bucks so something else to think about definitely though this is going to be the most important part of your stream setup if you have to sacrifice the USB webcam not the USB webcam but rather the the microphone in order for you to get the lighting done well with the USB webcam and you're using your headset mic in place of that that's okay that's a good sacrifice to make for your your feed and everything to look good okay cool so hopefully you've got some some success at this point maybe you've hit affiliate on Twitch or otherwise have a following wherever you're streaming to now maybe it's time to step things up the first thing I would go with at this point now is a USB audio interface this will let you start up in your mic quality and adjustability game utilizing the XLR port of your microphone if you got the q2 you or the 8205 your speed or any other mic with the XLR port this is the next logical step now I generally recommend that the behringer euphoria um - which usually goes for between thirty to forty dollars on Amazon when it's in stock it has the ability to do phantom power 48 volt phantom power that's if you got a condenser microphone if you guys want to see my review on a condenser microphone a cheap one that still sounds good make sure you click the link right up here as well however if that one is in stock there is one that's the next step up and that's the behringer euphoria um 22 which is about fifty dollars and you can do a little bit more with that have an extra input it's nice and doesn't cost that much more actually my bad it comes in at fifty seven dollars but yeah at this point though you will need an XLR cable to connect your microphone to the interface and they run for about ten bucks for an amazonbasics ones that's what I use they get the job done now you might be thinking camera upgrade at this point well I would say sure it's an optional upgrade at this point I think being at this level means you can still ride with the c920 or any other webcam at its level however if you wanted to start looking towards a mirrorless or DSLR camera as a webcam you want to make sure you look into each do you mind capture cards that will support that the most common that you hear about is the elgato cam however there are other options like the AVerMedia live gamer mini we can check our video on that one or the church for Casey which you can also check our video on that one also linked up there down in description below now all these that I just mentioned go for around 120 dollars however there are cheaper options which we've also reviewed again link up there or down description below and you can probably go with one let's say off of Amazon there's one from a company called Peng go for about 80 bucks that will do the same job so might be something else worth looking into if 120 bucks for one is a bit out of your budget now you'll still need a camera to pair with this capture card if you wanted to use that as your webcam and without a doubt hands down I go I'd suggest the sony a 5100 which is actually the one I'm using back there became my main camera not that long it goes well through a capture card now the a 5100 is nice because it's a flip up screen where you can sort of monitor yourself see how you sit in frame and all that sort of stuff full adjustability like any nice mirrorless or DSLR camera interchangeable lenses so you can change the way that the camera looks the angles a shot and all that sort of stuff and more importantly really good autofocus because when you have a setup like this you just sort of want to set it and forget it and when it has good autofocus you don't have to think too much about what's going on when you have your hand up in front of the camera camera you're looking at right now is my Lumix G 85 and that could work in that situation a lot of people like using a lumix g7 but the problem with those they don't have very good autofocus so right now I have manual focus my hand is now out of focus and it's not going to adjust to my hand because I have it fixed to my face well if I had you know or I could do this and you know Mike hand is still out of focus at this point if I was using the other camera I could go way back here and it'd be it focus on it I could hold something up to the camera like you probably would on a stream and it would focus on it it's a really nice camera to use in that case and you can get them on eBay for probably in the two to three hundred dollar range as well as a decent lens I'm using the Sony 16 millimeter on their f2 point eight and that's another hundred twenty hundred and thirty dollars for that so you can get away between three to four hundred dollars for the full camera then another eighty two hundred twenty dollars for the capture card so because this is kind of a bigger expenditure that's why it's optional at this point of the game where if you wanted to stick with your c920 you're still good to do that but if you did go with the mirrorless idea that DSLR web can't pay attention to the HDMI connection that it uses some use micro HDMI off of the camera some use mini HDMI off the camera and go pick a cable accordingly for that the a 5100 uses a micro HDMI cable and I'll link one down the description below because none of this stuff comes with the micro HDMI cable that is something you'd have to purchase to connect the camera to the capture card and so now we're at what I'd say is the pro level setup hopefully you found even more success maybe you hid partner on Twitch or maybe you're just getting a good enough following to where you feel that you really need to start upgrading your gear and yeah I got some suggestions for you to firstly is you want to upgrade your microphone at this point your you can still get away with the other microphones especially if you got one of the XLR models but you really want to take things to another level at this point and yeah a good microphone can make a lot of difference now at this point after everything that I've seen everything that I've heard there's only one microphone that I would even consider and that is the rode pod mic it goes for about a hundred dollars and with a few adjustments to the EQ settings you can make it sound as good as the shure sm7b which is a super popular microphone for huge streamers including people like shroud it's a really good mic the road Padma it can sound very nearly to that level and when you're streaming after after about the hundred dollar point you really do start hitting like diminishing returns with your mic quality the wrote pod mic can easily sound just as good as the sm7b with the right settings so it's kind of a no-brainer if you're really trying to step up your game it is solid solidly and well built though and that presents another little issue now the issue presents is that it's heavy and the cheapy microphone arm mounts may not be enough to hold it up properly so you may need to upgrade your microphone boom arm now a company called TC know makes a heavy-duty mic on for around fifty dollars on Amazon and that should do enough to keep that mic up in the air and solid so that'll be linked down description below now of those microphone EQ settings that I mentioned while you can get away with doing that inside of OBS that mic will only sound like that when you're streaming through OBS so a way around that is to do your microphone settings at bass treble things like that through an upgraded USB XLR interface and when you're at this pro level only one really sticks out that would be the TC Helicon gaming go XLR now the go XLR is expensive the big one is around $500 the small one is about 250 for 250 bucks though that small one still offers a ton of the features of the bigger one most of the usable ones as well you can plug your mic right into it you can make the adjustments that you need to the faders on it that you can assign the different stuff to it so you can control the different volumes that are that you're dealing with when streaming right on the interface as well are super useful if you guys want to watch more on setting that up and I'll link you guys to alpha gaming video right up here super useful super great and you can't really do better than that for top-level streaming when it comes to an interface so that's it for the different levels of streamer gear that you would want but that's just accessories and gear when it comes to streaming that's only part of the equation the other part of the equation is if you're going single PC setup or dual PC set-up and what kind of gear would you pick for each of those types of setups and now we're going to get into that so if you're looking at a single PC setup and this information applies across the board realistically there are some important things to consider so firstly streaming is very CPU heavy and whether you're doing whether you're talking about effects or just actual encoding it still uses CPU cores there's a little bit of a caveat there but I'll get into that shortly so with that being said if you're a on a streaming system you want six cores or you know 12 threads basically a risin five sixteen hundred twenty-six hundred thirty-six hundred or better as your minimum spec there are you're gonna want at least sixteen gigabytes of RAM maybe up to 32 gigs because a lot of the times all the extra stuff that you're doing with streaming will eat into your RAM and take it away from gaming a little bit so a little bit extra doesn't hurt if you can afford it but the more cores the better when it comes to streaming six cores is just what I'd say is the bare minimum to do things well enough you could probably get away with the budget system with four cores and I've done that if you guys want to check out that video I'm gonna be linked linked right up here but six cores if you want a really good sort of somewhat future-proof scenario would be a six core CPU I mean obviously like an 80 700 K from Intel or 9900 K from Intel also would get the job done and that's six and eight cores but yeah that's definitely something that you're going to want to go after so that caveat that I mentioned that would be touring the Nvidia touring encoder on the 1650 super and up graphics cards that was introduced with the turning architecture it is top notch you can get nearly x264 medium quality out of hardware encoding on the GPU the benefit of using the GPU to do the encoding is that it frees up the CPU for other things like your gaming performance the best part about NV anka is that there's minimal impact on the performance while while you're using it of your games so I mean our 1660 super review covers that as it covers gaming and gaming plus streaming performance to the end bang make sure you guys check that video right up there or link down description below so that caveat n vank lets you get away with weaker systems to do full streaming single PC which is really nice and the fact that you can start out with a one hundred and sixty dollar 1650 super to get that done is a godsend so to sum up at the starting point I'd say six cores 12 threads are better that's a risin five sixteen hundred twenty-six hundred or thirty six-hundred realistic neither 2600 and even better the 3600 would be the ones to get as they have really great gaming performance as well as encoding performance if you go that way 16 gigabytes of RAM with 32 gigabytes of RAM being ideal but 16 should get the job done plenty good and I'd say a gtx 1660 super or better because when it comes to game streaming you're gonna want the best performance that you can get now ideally something like an RT X 20 let's say 60 Super and up would be better especially if you're playing at 1080p because it will ensure that your game is - no matter the game that you're playing are running at their best and you still have that Turing encoder in case you wanted to use n VIN however depending on your budget especially if you're looking at the $400 GPU category the Radeon 5700 XT will provide fantastic gaming performance if you're going to be using CPU encoding so now let's get to the two PC setup things are a little bit different when it comes to this because you're gonna want the most powerful system that you can get quad-core or better for your gaming PC the most powerful GPU that you can get again I'd so I'd start at a 1660 SuperBetter but you can definitely get away with the lower class GPU like an rx 580 or is 1650 or whatever whatever you have there for streaming because the best part of the two PC streaming setup is your offloading a majority of that load onto the second computer to do that heavy lifting which ensures the gaming performance on your main PC stays tip-top so whether you're capturing your main feed on the second PC via NDI or a capture card the the rules are still the same for the specs of that second computer now because that all that second computer is going to be doing is encoding you can get away with not necessarily having a great ass of specs on it I've talked about the basics of a streaming computer in a video that'll be linked right up here down in description below and and yeah so basically you can get away with the four core eight thread but realistically let's start at the highly affordable again rising v 2600 currently 120 dollars on Amazon the 3600 is also an option and then there's obviously the 8 core versions that can the eight core Intel or AMD whatever you can afford whatever you think is best however in terms of value rising is hard to beat more cores are better when it comes to this because if you're using a second PC to the to do the encoding CPU and coding all the way would be great I'm going to link some CPU encoding options not linked but actually have them typed out for you down below as well as a video that talks about the different options you can use to make x264 encoding look better but it's really easy to input so you'll see now you can get away with eight gigs of RAM for your streaming PC it doesn't need to have a whole ton of RAM eight to sixteen gigabytes and you'll be fine however if your budget was a little flip-flopped when it came to building that second computer you could use envying the gtx 1650 super has the Turing encoder the same encoder that's on the majority of the cards in that lineup so if you had just like a spare little cheapy CPU lying around little quad core a little Xeon system or anything just extra that you could put another GPU into you can slap a 1650 Super right into that sucker turn on in Vinc and use that as your streaming PC and it will do the job just fine which is actually super nice being able to get into a 2 PC stream set up with a spare computer just upgrading to a relatively affordable GPU is is not something that you could have done in the past so it's really nice that you can do this now and there you have it but that's not the end of things so I got some closing thoughts on that let's get into them now and that's what I feel is a pretty good guide for the different levels of streaming when it comes to whether you're starting out whether your mid-level streamer whether you're at the top pro level or anything like that obviously there's way more stuff you can do especially if you factor in wanting to do stuff like a green screen setup green screens are fantastic but they're definitely not necessary you can use other things like excellent V cam to do background deletion which we've also done when I do on almost every stream that'll be linked right up here if you guys want to check that out but it's an optional thing at every level so that's why maybe I didn't mention it at every level specifically now you can do awesome stuff with the green screen like what doctor disrespect does with having really awesome custom backgrounds to make you look like you're in different places or you can just make your broom look nice so your background is a nice room with some RGB floodlights they're not expensive they're 10 to 15 bucks you can do some cool lighting stuff with them and that'll really spruce things up but with all that being said there is still more to do when it comes to your actual stream setup and we have plenty of videos on that there is an N value have that you have to follow in order to get anything set up properly and to do its best job as well as x264 OBS settings if you're gonna do CPU encoding so a lot of things to consider lotta links down the description to cover all this stuff make sure you look down at the description below for links to everything as well as links to all these videos because there's so much more that can be said that there really just isn't time in this one single video to cover all of it without going for like 40 or 50 minutes anyways what kind of gear do you guys have in your stream setup anything that you would swap out or anything that you would suggest against what I've suggested let's talk about it drop a comment down below and we'll get this conversate that conversation started so hit that like button hit that subscribe button share this video with all your friends we'd really appreciate it my name is Chris this is coalition gaming and I've been your stream technician goodbyeit's really easy for streamers to get lost in a sea of products when it comes to buying gear to upgrade to to start out with or to just use for their streaming so today I've got a little buying guide for you guys to talk about the different products that I think you guys should get at every level my name is Chris that is coalition gaming and today I'll be your stream technician real quick if you're new around here if you into PC hardware tech gaming stream tutorials and all sorts of stuff like that make sure you hit that subscribe button hit that like button we'd really appreciate it anyways let's get to the video if you're just starting out or you're just a streaming hobbyist looking for a decent setup these are the things to get first thing a good USB microphone now headset microphones have made strides in how good they sound but to really have that set up to really have that like feel of a streamer when you're doing this sort of stuff a really good USB mic especially on a boom arm is definitely a thing to get so with that being said I like to recommend the fine fine k66 9b especially because USB microphones are just simple the if you care about simplicity in your setup a microphone like this is great it has a volume knob right on it so you can control the volume output of that microphone right on it it has a really good swivel mechanism and it is able to be mounted on the boom arm so you could really isolate noises from tapping on the keyboard or tapping on the desk instead of just having a microphone sitting on there which it would reverberate through and the boom arm really does help but the microphone itself in the test that we that we've done if you want to watch that by the way it'll be linked right over here it actually sounds really freaking good for 30 bucks so yeah that'll be linked down the description below however if you wanted a microphone to carry forward in your streaming endeavor there are two microphones out there that are worth looking at that would be the samson qtu and the audio technica at2020 5 USB those microphones have both USB and XLR and if you grow with your setup that XLR is definitely going to come in handy this absent QT new comes in at around $60 and the Audio Technica comes out and had around $90 so it's up to you what you guys think will be more worth it they both sound really good and that you can't really go wrong with either selection the next thing to get would be a microphone boom arm I mentioned this previously already but I'm just gonna mention it again for importance they can really help with canceling out reverberations through the desk and stuff onto the mic so definitely get one of those they also give you a bit of a pro look podcaster look streamer look they're nice to have and when you have the mic able to be pushed out of the way or just up on the stand like that it's a good feeling additionally if the mic arm comes with the shock mount and you can mount your mic into the shock mount on it you'd be even better fortunately they're not all that expensive for a basic one that can hold up most of these microphones you're probably looking at spending anywhere between 8 to $15 for one so as far as cost goes this is probably one of the cheapest things that you can get that really helps overall now you're going to want a decent starter camera and honestly that comes down to the venerable Logitech c920 it can do 1080p 30 720p 30 I'm not sure if we can do 720p 60 but either what whatever the case is but that's still fine it looks good still and if you properly lit and you've got all that going on then it's definitely still of relevant webcam in 2019 which is kind of sad considering that came out like seven years ago but USB webcams are what they are right now they usually go for around 50 bucks so that's still not a bad price to get going now the most important thing that you can do when it comes to trying to make your stream look good is lighting a lot of people they don't really pay attention too much to the lighting when they set up a webcam and that can cause all sorts of problems right now I have multiple lights turn on I have a big studio light back over there I have an LED panel over there then I have a lamp that's the same color as everything over there just to get this to look good I mean I even have sending the ceiling fan light on the sort of light the top of my head lighting is super important when it comes to cameras and they perform better with the more light you give them now the way webcams work in their automatic modes is that the darker that your lighting situation is the more it tries to adjust for that and you get a grainy err signal it looks all sandy and grainy it's it's not good and then on top of that your a frames per second on the webcam will look terrible with bad lighting as well because that's one of the ways it compensates it runs at a lower fps so it can bring in more light per frame to help make you look a little clearer but that will affect the overall smoothness of that webcams performance and you don't want that you want it to run at its 30fps so it's smoother than it looks good you need good lighting now you may have heard of the Olga dokey lights they're expensive they do good for what they are though especially with the stands that they come with however there are other light options aside from that that will do the trick first would be the howeitat super slim dimmable 5500 K LED light panel they go for around 26 dollars on Amazon and they get the job done pretty decently I imagine nice white daylight 5500 k le D panel won't take up too much space and they also won't get too hot the fact that it's dimmable is also helpful then there's also the godox 3300 K to 5,600 K LED panel this goes for around 42 dollars and this one is from a more sort of recognizable brand as far as camera gear goes and it also is at color temperature adjustable so it's not just the one daylight color you can also dim it but you can adjust the color so you can have a warmer look or a cooler look depending on what you're after now in both cases you'll need a way to mount these or at least to put them on your table have them held up at a decent you know height I guess and a tabletop tripod with a cold shoe adapter will get that job done for that I suggest the crazy photo portable tripod goes for about 16 dollars on Amazon and as a matter of fact I use one to hold up my ring light back there and it's pretty nice works just fine but you'll need one for every light that you have in your setup so keep that in mind as well the cold shoe adapter is about eight bucks so something else to think about definitely though this is going to be the most important part of your stream setup if you have to sacrifice the USB webcam not the USB webcam but rather the the microphone in order for you to get the lighting done well with the USB webcam and you're using your headset mic in place of that that's okay that's a good sacrifice to make for your your feed and everything to look good okay cool so hopefully you've got some some success at this point maybe you've hit affiliate on Twitch or otherwise have a following wherever you're streaming to now maybe it's time to step things up the first thing I would go with at this point now is a USB audio interface this will let you start up in your mic quality and adjustability game utilizing the XLR port of your microphone if you got the q2 you or the 8205 your speed or any other mic with the XLR port this is the next logical step now I generally recommend that the behringer euphoria um - which usually goes for between thirty to forty dollars on Amazon when it's in stock it has the ability to do phantom power 48 volt phantom power that's if you got a condenser microphone if you guys want to see my review on a condenser microphone a cheap one that still sounds good make sure you click the link right up here as well however if that one is in stock there is one that's the next step up and that's the behringer euphoria um 22 which is about fifty dollars and you can do a little bit more with that have an extra input it's nice and doesn't cost that much more actually my bad it comes in at fifty seven dollars but yeah at this point though you will need an XLR cable to connect your microphone to the interface and they run for about ten bucks for an amazonbasics ones that's what I use they get the job done now you might be thinking camera upgrade at this point well I would say sure it's an optional upgrade at this point I think being at this level means you can still ride with the c920 or any other webcam at its level however if you wanted to start looking towards a mirrorless or DSLR camera as a webcam you want to make sure you look into each do you mind capture cards that will support that the most common that you hear about is the elgato cam however there are other options like the AVerMedia live gamer mini we can check our video on that one or the church for Casey which you can also check our video on that one also linked up there down in description below now all these that I just mentioned go for around 120 dollars however there are cheaper options which we've also reviewed again link up there or down description below and you can probably go with one let's say off of Amazon there's one from a company called Peng go for about 80 bucks that will do the same job so might be something else worth looking into if 120 bucks for one is a bit out of your budget now you'll still need a camera to pair with this capture card if you wanted to use that as your webcam and without a doubt hands down I go I'd suggest the sony a 5100 which is actually the one I'm using back there became my main camera not that long it goes well through a capture card now the a 5100 is nice because it's a flip up screen where you can sort of monitor yourself see how you sit in frame and all that sort of stuff full adjustability like any nice mirrorless or DSLR camera interchangeable lenses so you can change the way that the camera looks the angles a shot and all that sort of stuff and more importantly really good autofocus because when you have a setup like this you just sort of want to set it and forget it and when it has good autofocus you don't have to think too much about what's going on when you have your hand up in front of the camera camera you're looking at right now is my Lumix G 85 and that could work in that situation a lot of people like using a lumix g7 but the problem with those they don't have very good autofocus so right now I have manual focus my hand is now out of focus and it's not going to adjust to my hand because I have it fixed to my face well if I had you know or I could do this and you know Mike hand is still out of focus at this point if I was using the other camera I could go way back here and it'd be it focus on it I could hold something up to the camera like you probably would on a stream and it would focus on it it's a really nice camera to use in that case and you can get them on eBay for probably in the two to three hundred dollar range as well as a decent lens I'm using the Sony 16 millimeter on their f2 point eight and that's another hundred twenty hundred and thirty dollars for that so you can get away between three to four hundred dollars for the full camera then another eighty two hundred twenty dollars for the capture card so because this is kind of a bigger expenditure that's why it's optional at this point of the game where if you wanted to stick with your c920 you're still good to do that but if you did go with the mirrorless idea that DSLR web can't pay attention to the HDMI connection that it uses some use micro HDMI off of the camera some use mini HDMI off the camera and go pick a cable accordingly for that the a 5100 uses a micro HDMI cable and I'll link one down the description below because none of this stuff comes with the micro HDMI cable that is something you'd have to purchase to connect the camera to the capture card and so now we're at what I'd say is the pro level setup hopefully you found even more success maybe you hid partner on Twitch or maybe you're just getting a good enough following to where you feel that you really need to start upgrading your gear and yeah I got some suggestions for you to firstly is you want to upgrade your microphone at this point your you can still get away with the other microphones especially if you got one of the XLR models but you really want to take things to another level at this point and yeah a good microphone can make a lot of difference now at this point after everything that I've seen everything that I've heard there's only one microphone that I would even consider and that is the rode pod mic it goes for about a hundred dollars and with a few adjustments to the EQ settings you can make it sound as good as the shure sm7b which is a super popular microphone for huge streamers including people like shroud it's a really good mic the road Padma it can sound very nearly to that level and when you're streaming after after about the hundred dollar point you really do start hitting like diminishing returns with your mic quality the wrote pod mic can easily sound just as good as the sm7b with the right settings so it's kind of a no-brainer if you're really trying to step up your game it is solid solidly and well built though and that presents another little issue now the issue presents is that it's heavy and the cheapy microphone arm mounts may not be enough to hold it up properly so you may need to upgrade your microphone boom arm now a company called TC know makes a heavy-duty mic on for around fifty dollars on Amazon and that should do enough to keep that mic up in the air and solid so that'll be linked down description below now of those microphone EQ settings that I mentioned while you can get away with doing that inside of OBS that mic will only sound like that when you're streaming through OBS so a way around that is to do your microphone settings at bass treble things like that through an upgraded USB XLR interface and when you're at this pro level only one really sticks out that would be the TC Helicon gaming go XLR now the go XLR is expensive the big one is around $500 the small one is about 250 for 250 bucks though that small one still offers a ton of the features of the bigger one most of the usable ones as well you can plug your mic right into it you can make the adjustments that you need to the faders on it that you can assign the different stuff to it so you can control the different volumes that are that you're dealing with when streaming right on the interface as well are super useful if you guys want to watch more on setting that up and I'll link you guys to alpha gaming video right up here super useful super great and you can't really do better than that for top-level streaming when it comes to an interface so that's it for the different levels of streamer gear that you would want but that's just accessories and gear when it comes to streaming that's only part of the equation the other part of the equation is if you're going single PC setup or dual PC set-up and what kind of gear would you pick for each of those types of setups and now we're going to get into that so if you're looking at a single PC setup and this information applies across the board realistically there are some important things to consider so firstly streaming is very CPU heavy and whether you're doing whether you're talking about effects or just actual encoding it still uses CPU cores there's a little bit of a caveat there but I'll get into that shortly so with that being said if you're a on a streaming system you want six cores or you know 12 threads basically a risin five sixteen hundred twenty-six hundred thirty-six hundred or better as your minimum spec there are you're gonna want at least sixteen gigabytes of RAM maybe up to 32 gigs because a lot of the times all the extra stuff that you're doing with streaming will eat into your RAM and take it away from gaming a little bit so a little bit extra doesn't hurt if you can afford it but the more cores the better when it comes to streaming six cores is just what I'd say is the bare minimum to do things well enough you could probably get away with the budget system with four cores and I've done that if you guys want to check out that video I'm gonna be linked linked right up here but six cores if you want a really good sort of somewhat future-proof scenario would be a six core CPU I mean obviously like an 80 700 K from Intel or 9900 K from Intel also would get the job done and that's six and eight cores but yeah that's definitely something that you're going to want to go after so that caveat that I mentioned that would be touring the Nvidia touring encoder on the 1650 super and up graphics cards that was introduced with the turning architecture it is top notch you can get nearly x264 medium quality out of hardware encoding on the GPU the benefit of using the GPU to do the encoding is that it frees up the CPU for other things like your gaming performance the best part about NV anka is that there's minimal impact on the performance while while you're using it of your games so I mean our 1660 super review covers that as it covers gaming and gaming plus streaming performance to the end bang make sure you guys check that video right up there or link down description below so that caveat n vank lets you get away with weaker systems to do full streaming single PC which is really nice and the fact that you can start out with a one hundred and sixty dollar 1650 super to get that done is a godsend so to sum up at the starting point I'd say six cores 12 threads are better that's a risin five sixteen hundred twenty-six hundred or thirty six-hundred realistic neither 2600 and even better the 3600 would be the ones to get as they have really great gaming performance as well as encoding performance if you go that way 16 gigabytes of RAM with 32 gigabytes of RAM being ideal but 16 should get the job done plenty good and I'd say a gtx 1660 super or better because when it comes to game streaming you're gonna want the best performance that you can get now ideally something like an RT X 20 let's say 60 Super and up would be better especially if you're playing at 1080p because it will ensure that your game is - no matter the game that you're playing are running at their best and you still have that Turing encoder in case you wanted to use n VIN however depending on your budget especially if you're looking at the $400 GPU category the Radeon 5700 XT will provide fantastic gaming performance if you're going to be using CPU encoding so now let's get to the two PC setup things are a little bit different when it comes to this because you're gonna want the most powerful system that you can get quad-core or better for your gaming PC the most powerful GPU that you can get again I'd so I'd start at a 1660 SuperBetter but you can definitely get away with the lower class GPU like an rx 580 or is 1650 or whatever whatever you have there for streaming because the best part of the two PC streaming setup is your offloading a majority of that load onto the second computer to do that heavy lifting which ensures the gaming performance on your main PC stays tip-top so whether you're capturing your main feed on the second PC via NDI or a capture card the the rules are still the same for the specs of that second computer now because that all that second computer is going to be doing is encoding you can get away with not necessarily having a great ass of specs on it I've talked about the basics of a streaming computer in a video that'll be linked right up here down in description below and and yeah so basically you can get away with the four core eight thread but realistically let's start at the highly affordable again rising v 2600 currently 120 dollars on Amazon the 3600 is also an option and then there's obviously the 8 core versions that can the eight core Intel or AMD whatever you can afford whatever you think is best however in terms of value rising is hard to beat more cores are better when it comes to this because if you're using a second PC to the to do the encoding CPU and coding all the way would be great I'm going to link some CPU encoding options not linked but actually have them typed out for you down below as well as a video that talks about the different options you can use to make x264 encoding look better but it's really easy to input so you'll see now you can get away with eight gigs of RAM for your streaming PC it doesn't need to have a whole ton of RAM eight to sixteen gigabytes and you'll be fine however if your budget was a little flip-flopped when it came to building that second computer you could use envying the gtx 1650 super has the Turing encoder the same encoder that's on the majority of the cards in that lineup so if you had just like a spare little cheapy CPU lying around little quad core a little Xeon system or anything just extra that you could put another GPU into you can slap a 1650 Super right into that sucker turn on in Vinc and use that as your streaming PC and it will do the job just fine which is actually super nice being able to get into a 2 PC stream set up with a spare computer just upgrading to a relatively affordable GPU is is not something that you could have done in the past so it's really nice that you can do this now and there you have it but that's not the end of things so I got some closing thoughts on that let's get into them now and that's what I feel is a pretty good guide for the different levels of streaming when it comes to whether you're starting out whether your mid-level streamer whether you're at the top pro level or anything like that obviously there's way more stuff you can do especially if you factor in wanting to do stuff like a green screen setup green screens are fantastic but they're definitely not necessary you can use other things like excellent V cam to do background deletion which we've also done when I do on almost every stream that'll be linked right up here if you guys want to check that out but it's an optional thing at every level so that's why maybe I didn't mention it at every level specifically now you can do awesome stuff with the green screen like what doctor disrespect does with having really awesome custom backgrounds to make you look like you're in different places or you can just make your broom look nice so your background is a nice room with some RGB floodlights they're not expensive they're 10 to 15 bucks you can do some cool lighting stuff with them and that'll really spruce things up but with all that being said there is still more to do when it comes to your actual stream setup and we have plenty of videos on that there is an N value have that you have to follow in order to get anything set up properly and to do its best job as well as x264 OBS settings if you're gonna do CPU encoding so a lot of things to consider lotta links down the description to cover all this stuff make sure you look down at the description below for links to everything as well as links to all these videos because there's so much more that can be said that there really just isn't time in this one single video to cover all of it without going for like 40 or 50 minutes anyways what kind of gear do you guys have in your stream setup anything that you would swap out or anything that you would suggest against what I've suggested let's talk about it drop a comment down below and we'll get this conversate that conversation started so hit that like button hit that subscribe button share this video with all your friends we'd really appreciate it my name is Chris this is coalition gaming and I've been your stream technician goodbye\n"