Need help building gaming/streaming pc

[Wolfman]

I need help building a gaming pc that i can stream my games with using twitch, i would like to use newegg for buying hardware and my budgett is between 500- 800 U.S. dollars. I would also like to stick with intel for my cpu and 2 ssd hardrives, one for my os and one for everything else, games i would like to play on it are archeage,wildstar, advanced warfare, evolve, the crew and many more graphicaly intense games. Thank you for your time

[Eroginous]

How much of your current PC can be reused?

$800 might not be enough to build a new PC capable of streaming on ultra settings, depending on how much of your current PC you can reuse. Also, there's not much point in getting 2 SSDs, get one for your OS/Games, then get a mechanical for storage if you need it (the price/performance comes out in favor of mechanical drives for storage still).

If you want to stream, you'll want to get an i7, which is going to be most of your budget. $800 isn't going to leave much room for anything other than a mobo, ram, and GPU. If you need monitor, mouse/keyboard/case/PSU/hard drive, you're looking at probably $1200 at least for a streaming PC. Possibly more if you want a higher end video card.

Here's what's possible with ~$800:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KQFst6

does not include mouse, keyboard, or monitor.

[BarelyLegalBear]

How much of your current PC can be reused?

$800 might not be enough to build a new PC capable of streaming on ultra settings, depending on how much of your current PC you can reuse. Also, there's not much point in getting 2 SSDs, get one for your OS/Games, then get a mechanical for storage if you need it (the price/performance comes out in favor of mechanical drives for storage still).

If you want to stream, you'll want to get an i7, which is going to be most of your budget. $800 isn't going to leave much room for anything other than a mobo, ram, and GPU. If you need monitor, mouse/keyboard/case/PSU/hard drive, you're looking at probably $1200 at least for a streaming PC. Possibly more if you want a higher end video card.

Here's what's possible with ~$800:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KQFst6

does not include mouse, keyboard, or monitor.

For streaming, wouldn't he require more power? Seems like you would be using more power to stream rather than play games. With everything he is wanting to do i'd feel like at least 500W+ PSU would be best. I'm no expert, i'm actually just curious. I do trust Corsair (Great Brand!) but i feel like he will need a little bit more power to be fully sure of facing no problems. I'd actually recommend this myself: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095
Goes a little over budget but i feel like it'd last longer than the corsair. Not entirely sure because i am no expert but anything is better than nothing.

[volkvin]

For streaming, wouldn't he require more power? Seems like you would be using more power to stream rather than play games. With everything he is wanting to do i'd feel like at least 500W+ PSU would be best. I'm no expert, i'm actually just curious. I do trust Corsair (Great Brand!) but i feel like he will need a little bit more power to be fully sure of facing no problems. I'd actually recommend this myself: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095
Goes a little over budget but i feel like it'd last longer than the corsair. Not entirely sure because i am no expert but anything is better than nothing.

Your actions on the station do not in any form dictate power supply capacity. Only hardware does that. Most PCs will be able to run on a nice quiet PSU up to 400W. What starts draining power are video cards, auxillary cooling equipment and amount of actual devices used on each one of power rails of PSU.

In modern times, I calculate my PSU as follows: 300W to begin with and add max TDP of processor and video card.
For example, i5-4460 with gtx750TI = 300W+84W(i5)+60W(750ti) = 450W PSU
Another one, i7-4820 with gtx780ti*2 = 300W+130W(i7)+(250W(780ti)*2)=950W+ PSU

[Remilia]

For streaming, wouldn't he require more power? Seems like you would be using more power to stream rather than play games. With everything he is wanting to do i'd feel like at least 500W+ PSU would be best. I'm no expert, i'm actually just curious. I do trust Corsair (Great Brand!) but i feel like he will need a little bit more power to be fully sure of facing no problems. I'd actually recommend this myself: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095
Goes a little over budget but i feel like it'd last longer than the corsair. Not entirely sure because i am no expert but anything is better than nothing.

Ehh... Corsair's lower end PSU aren't great. Higher end, sure but not the CX / Builder.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 270 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $807.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

You aren't going to be able to get 2x SSDs with $800 without seriously sacrificing some things.

[Eroginous]

For streaming, wouldn't he require more power? Seems like you would be using more power to stream rather than play games. With everything he is wanting to do i'd feel like at least 500W+ PSU would be best. I'm no expert, i'm actually just curious. I do trust Corsair (Great Brand!) but i feel like he will need a little bit more power to be fully sure of facing no problems. I'd actually recommend this myself: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095
Goes a little over budget but i feel like it'd last longer than the corsair. Not entirely sure because i am no expert but anything is better than nothing.

For streaming in any serious capacity he's going to want to nearly double his budget. I already explained that wouldn't really be possible with $800. I mean you can stream, but it will be low res and it will tax your PC. I went with a PSU that would power his entire PC and then some, with the hardware he can afford. If he wants to sacrifice the SSD, he can put that money into an overclockable CPU/mobo, but it's not really going to boost his performance enough to make streaming possible. He needs a better video card too.

Preferably an i7 for the hyper threading and a GTX 760/770 for the Shadowplay. The games he wants to play are already CPU bound, so there's got to be something there to handle the extra power needed to stream, especially if he wants 720p or 1080p streams. He also has to make sure his internet is capable of uploading a stream without eating his entire connection bandwidth. If he's paying for a 15 Mbit down/2 Mbit up connection, the best PC in the world isn't going to stream.

[Wolfman]

I have high speed net, internet connection should be fine i pay 60 a month just for the net plus id be using an ethernet cable staight to pc, im plannin on piecing the build together so i could probably put my budget more at 1200 to 1400 hundred, i just wanted to see if it could be done at 800 or less. So what should i focus more on for streaming at 720 to 1080p? Thank you all again for your advice

- - - Updated - - -

And forget the 2 ssd i was being a little crazy lol

[Deleted]

This is around $1400 at the moment:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($98.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card ($389.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1418.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Note the dual-SSD setup is entirely optional. That should do everything you need with the AMD streaming encoder. You could maybe go for a GTX780 if you lose the small SSD. Everything else is prettyy standard, high-quality gear ('cept maybe the PSU).

[Eroginous]

Can you do a speed test and post the results here? That way we can get a better idea of your streaming capabilities.

Also, you can build a perfectly capable gaming PC for $800 (it's going to be tougher if you need a monitor/mouse/keyboard). I have no idea what you're currently using as a gaming rig, that's why I asked questions about reusable parts. Monitors are a big one you should reuse whenever possible, they'll add $150-300 to your budget all by themselves (for a good one).

Mouse and keyboard can be had for $30 so that's not that big a deal. SSDs are nice but they don't really affect real world game performance outside of loading times. It's nice to boot into Windows in ~10 seconds and load in and out of the game quickly, but in terms of your FPS and graphics, they don't really matter. Streaming would benefit a little from having an SSD, but only if you were streaming several monitors that were each running a different client. Single monitor streaming won't benefit from an SSD.

I recommended Nvidia over AMD because of Shadowplay. It records up to the last 20 minutes of your game footage while it's enabled, and will also stream whatever you are currently doing. If you're just playing a game and you do something really cool, you can go back and upload that part of your play session without actively recording everything all the time.

It's a nice feature for gaming enthusiasts. AMD is coming out with a streaming feature for their cards, but it will only capture up to the last 10 minutes and it's not even in Beta yet, so you have to deal with the bugs and development problems with AMD while they try to get that online. If you're after 1080p gaming/streaming, you're going to want at least a GTX 760 in order to handle the Shadowplay and graphics settings. A 770 would do better, but you're looking at $300+ for one.

Here's what it might look like with a $1200 budget:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YLspzy

You might be able to whittle some of that price down and get better deals on equivalent stuff, but that's about what you'd want to get if you wanted to stream 1080p. Again, that's not including the monitor, mouse, or keyboard.

[Wolfman]

Right now myrig is an xbox1 so i dont think i could use any hardware from that, my tv is my moniter(42inch lg smart tv with 3 hdmi ports and 4 usb ports, i have keyboard and mouse and a good friend is going to school for coputers so i may be able to get a free os. I think i would only use ssd for my os so a 60gig or less would probably work. As im using my xbox one to surf net als(cause i was a dumbass and sold my pc) i dont think i can post speed tests.

[IRunSoFarAway]

Right now myrig is an xbox1 so i dont think i could use any hardware from that, my tv is my moniter(42inch lg smart tv with 3 hdmi ports and 4 usb ports, i have keyboard and mouse and a good friend is going to school for coputers so i may be able to get a free os. I think i would only use ssd for my os so a 60gig or less would probably work. As im using my xbox one to surf net als(cause i was a dumbass and sold my pc) i dont think i can post speed tests.

I really don't even know what to say about the xbox thing...

Why would you only use it for your OS? That makes no sense, especially if you're planning on streaming. ~120GB is pretty much the standard for most SSDs, there really aren't that many that still have 60GB, if they do, it'll only be a $10 price difference within the same manufacturer, why bother?

If you don't know how fast/slow your internet is, and you want to do a speedtest but can't use the xbox, see if anyone has a laptop you can plug into your cable modem to test it.

[Wolfman]

lol yea i no, not sure why i got an xbox(over rated over priced), as for ssd just for os idk not really too computer savvy and never built my own before, thught maybe it would make a price difference but i guess not so thank you for correcting me

[Eroginous]

Right now myrig is an xbox1 so i dont think i could use any hardware from that, my tv is my moniter(42inch lg smart tv with 3 hdmi ports and 4 usb ports, i have keyboard and mouse and a good friend is going to school for coputers so i may be able to get a free os. I think i would only use ssd for my os so a 60gig or less would probably work. As im using my xbox one to surf net als(cause i was a dumbass and sold my pc) i dont think i can post speed tests.

Pretty much the last thing you want to do is invest in a streaming computer that can't actually stream on your connection. You could get a gaming rig for your initial budget without much trouble, but if you really want to stream, you should find out if you're capable of it and whether or not you could upgrade if your connection isn't good enough. You won't be able to go from gaming rig to streaming rig later on without replacing CPU/GPU, you kind of have to find this stuff out before you commit.

[Wolfman]

my speed test is 26.77mbps download and 5.98mbps upload thats using wifi not hardlined, plus right now my xbox 1, two smartphones, a smart tv, and a laptop are running on wifi

[Eroginous]

5.98 is alright for up to 720p. You will need at least 10Mbit to stream 1080p.

Now that we have figured out your speeds, we can help you pare down your budget to fit a build that will work for what you're capable of.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qrmC4D

[Wolfman]

lol i think my router sucks, maybe i should invest in another brand instead of linksys, anyway thats with my internet through xfinty, by the time i have a pc ill have charter internet wich was way faster thank my xfinity internet

- - - Updated - - -

i no i said intel cpu but what would the build look like if i went amd instead, thank you for your info and patience, just trying to find the best bang for my buck

[Deleted]

I see a lot different figures, what is your final budget? (No OS, monitor etc.)

[Eroginous]

lol i think my router sucks, maybe i should invest in another brand instead of linksys, anyway thats with my internet through xfinty, by the time i have a pc ill have charter internet wich was way faster thank my xfinity internet

Your router isn't a limiting factor in your internet speed. Comcast is. If your router stays connected and provides a reliable connection, then it's as good as any other router out there - it's not like ISPs provide connections that can actually use your routers bandwidth anyway.

[Wolfman]

final budget 900 max, can use amd cpu and only one hard drive as i can always add another later on (preferably an ssd though) but can be a 250 gig or so, 8 gigs of ram, asrock z97 mobo as long as it supports amd, most of budget should go into graphics card and cpu

[Deleted]

What do you mean "needs to support AMD"?

Z97 is for Intel CPUs.