This part of the guide will focus on the physical things needed to have a proper setup. What do I mean when I say “setup” when I talk about a setup I am referring to the parts that you will be interacting with daily as you stream and/or make videos. This includes your desk, chair, capture devices, computer, Monitor and audio. Let’s explore each of these things:
1. The PC is the brain of your whole production as it will be not only where you will stream your content from, but also edit your videos as well. There are two options you have when you buy a computer, which will depend on the space that you have available and how your budget. One option is to buy a laptop. While a laptop such as a MacBook Pro or a Dell Precision laptop makes editing on the go easy due to its portability, laptops lose out in some performance while editing/streaming which, depending on the specifications of said laptop (which I will talk more in depth in the next section) could have a detrimental effect on your workflow. My personal recommendation would be to purchase a desktop computer if your budget allows for it. Desktop processors run a lot faster compared to their laptop counterparts, which will help in both editing and streaming video. Another reason for purchasing a desktop computer is that desktop computers allow for you to connect a wide variety of peripherals to it that laptops simply cannot support. Lastly, you also have the option with a desktop computer to either buy a pre-built system with everything you need in it, or buy all the parts yourself and put it together, which will save you some money in the process. There are many guides on how to put together your own DIY PC on YouTube. Regardless of which option you choose, you want to pick a machine that is powerful enough to suit your needs.
I’ll break down what you should look for in a computer into 4 categories: Type of processor, processor core count, hard drive space and memory (to be referred to as RAM to avoid confusion). Currently there are two processor manufacturers that will be in any computer/laptop you will buy: AMD and Intel. I will not discuss AMD processors because AMD has just started the release of their newest generation of processors and I do not feel comfortable making recommendations on processors that have not been thoroughly benchmarked yet. When looking up intel processors you want to look for both what kind of processor it is as well as what generation the processor is. Intel has many different processor lines but the most common ones are Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, with the core i3 line being the least expensive, and the i7 being the most expensive. This is where core count comes into play. A processor core is used by the processor to do a specific task. Another name for this is a thread. For our purposes, you want to aim for more 4 cores or higher to ensure that it can keep up with the workload you will be throwing at it. Another thing to consider is something called Hyper-Threading. Hyper-threading takes a physical core in a processor and adds a virtual (less powerful) thread to help with multitasking. So, a 2-core processor with hyper threading would have a total of 4 threads, since each core would have 2 threads. i5’s would be the minimum processor you should aim to get because it has a total of 4 cores/threads. I personally recommend a core i7 processor as these are 4 core processors, but with hyper-threading enabled to allow for those 8 threads. Keep in mind that most laptops tend to use dual core parts unless specified. this means Core i7 laptops will only have a total of two cores and 4 threads, which sounds good, but performance wise is still weaker than a true 4 core processor. Since there are many generations of processors to choose from, you have a lot of flexibility on which one to base your system on. Most Intel processors made after 2012 still have a lot of life left in them in terms of performance and you may be able to find these processors for a discount compared to the current generation processors. One valuable tool for finding the differences between these processors across all generations is Intel’s processor specification website (known as intel ark). Using ark, you can look for the processor that you come across, put the model into ark, and find out its specifications.
RAM (not to be confused with hard drives) is what your computer/laptop uses to store data that a specific program uses. When you use up your available memory, it can cause slowness in your system. For our purposes, I would suggest at least 16GB of RAM .
Hard Drives are where your programs, files, and videos are stored. There are two types of storage currently: Hard Drives and SSD’s. Hard drives use a magnetic platter to store your data. Hard drives also hold a lot of storage which is useful for video editing. SSD’s are flash based and has no moving parts, which exponentially increases the rate in which you can copy files to it as well as do things such as open programs. The only downside to SSD storage is that it cannot hold the same amount of data as a hard drive and is more expensive than a hard drive at higher capacities. On a desktop, I would suggest buying 256 or 512 GB (gigabyte) SSD for the Operating system and programs and then buy a hard drive with a capacity of 1TB (terabyte or 1,000 gigabytes) or more for your media. If you are buying a laptop, chances are that it would come with a SSD already installed, so I would purchase an external hard drive and use that to store files.
2. Regardless of if you are using a desktop or a laptop, I would also suggest buying a monitor for your setup. Monitors not only help your productivity by giving you a larger workspace compared to a regular monitor, but you can also use them for things like consoles to bring all your content to one place. Multiple monitors are useful for streaming as it allows you to monitor your chat while playing.
3. Depending on your own preferences, you may want to use either a headset, or a combination of headphones and microphones. There’s no real disadvantage to either one so it’s good to pick what’s best for your situation. I prefer a headphone/mic setup since I have a couple of headphones I like to cycle through while I’m playing, streaming, or editing.
4. If you are going to play console games, you’re going to need a capture device to have a webcam (unless you buy the horrid PlayStation Eye or Kinect). Capture devices sit in between the HDMI connection going from your console to your TV and allows you to manipulate the video inside of your video capture program of choice (more on this in part 4).
5. Your desk and chair are purely a decision of what you feel is both astatically pleasing, as well as practical to fit into your space. You should be considering what hardware you are going to put there so you don’t end up crowding your desk with a lot of stuff. Get creative!
In the links below are the items that I use personally for my own setup. In Part 3 I will touch on the fun part in all of this: streaming and editing videos!
The Cozy Productions battle station.
Monitors
Custom Built with the following specs: (Gaming/Streaming PC)
Intel Core i7 2600k
20 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
1 TB HD
MacBook Pro with Retina display (Late 2013) (Editing machine)
Core i7 4750HQ
16 GB Ram
256 GB SSD
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