My Dual PC Streaming Setup

Every article I write explaining streaming equipment or software gets me thinking: I have yet to share my current streaming setup and the applications I use with you. That is, until now.

So, before I go over the specifications on both my PCs, I thought I’d give a little explanation as to why I have a dual PC setup, why it makes a difference to me, and why I’d never go back to a single PC setup (if I could help it).

It started when I streamed Call of Duty and Assasin’s Creed: Origins on my (single) PC. Everything was going fine, but during a stream one day, my computer started to get extremely hot and slow down pretty much to a halt by the time I finished my stream. This is the first time it’s ever done this, and I tried to find out why, but nothing had changed besides a little coil whine coming from my then-graphics card, the RTX 2080ti.

This happened a few more times when streaming only those two games and then Red Dead Redemption 2 when I was requested to play that. I was at the point where I said enough was enough and bought a second PC just to stream from. Luckily, I could afford either an upgrade to my current PC or a cheaper PC, but for streaming only. I chose the latter for a few good reasons.

I weighed all the pros and cons in my head and concluded that getting a PC dedicated to just handling the stream rather than a PC that would handle both would be better in the long run. This is because I salvaged the GeForce 1060 from my gaming PC before I upgraded it to the RTX 2080ti, so I didn’t have to buy a graphics card, and I already had 16 GB of RAM lying around from upgrading that also. So, all I had to get was a motherboard, CPU (that was good enough to stream from), storage, and a case.

I chose the i5 because it could run OBS with multiple browser sources, effects, plugins, etc., and had enough power to run whatever other programs I needed, like Dixper, Spotify, and any bot software.

After getting the second PC, upgrading, and buying some additional hardware, the only problem I faced was setting them up in a way that would be easy enough to manage and get them working together to make my stream work.

So, here’s that list. You will notice that even though it’s a lot of hardware, it isn’t all brand new or has the latest chipsets. The processors are from 2018, and I have no issues running any software or game I throw at it.

My Current Hardware

As I type this article, I find it quite astonishing how the hardware I have at my disposal has served me so well over the years I’ve created content. Considering how old some of it is, the graphics card still holds up exceptionally well with current-generation hardware.

What Software I Use

Once upon a time, I used a lot, and I mean A LOT, of software. That has all changed since new software is always coming out with more, updated, or even better features, and I like to keep up-to-date on it all to improve my content and make my streams unique.

To control my streams, I use three pieces of software: OBS, Aitum, and Streamer.bot. I’m trimming it down to just one, as updates to the software I use have enabled this to be streamlined. 

Most of what I do and use in my stream is controlled via hardware, such as my Elgato Streamdeck, software like OBS plugins, or the two pieces of software I mentioned above.

This is my “Just Chatting” screen, where I talk to my viewers. This time, I’m streaming with my girlfriend, LisaParaNorma, who also streams, which showcases perfectly one of the effects I have for my camera. The gradient mask I have blends my camera into the game to give a half-and-half type of presence on the screen to make it a little more immersive, show the game in the background as I’m talking but still able to see me clearly, and be personal with my community.

As optimized as my stream is for how I want it, I still have some work to do to make it exactly as I want. Surprising to some, if you exclude the starting/ending scenes, I only have one active scene on my stream. I achieved this using an OBS plugin called Move Transition, my Elgato Streamdeck, and Aitum. Depending on the game I’m playing, I use the plugin along with my Streamdeck to resize, crop, and reposition my camera across the scene so that anything in-game that is of importance I can move my camera out of the way so it can be visible on stream.

I use scene nesting to make a scene (such as my alerts, on-screen interactions, etc.) exactly how I want it to be, and then I add that scene to my ‘main’ one so I can adjust it as needed. Doing this, at least to me, seems to help my OBS run smoother and use up fewer resources as I’m streaming, which is always a good thing, especially if you’re running on a single PC setup.

The last example of the software I use is Streamer.bot, which is how I make subscriber alerts. When I get a subscriber on Twitch, the Pedro song starts playing. The bot grabs the profile picture of the person who subscribed, crops it to a circle with an image mask in OBS, and makes it pulse with an effect plugin as the beat drops. In OBS, it also creates the iconic Pedro meme for each subscriber.

Things like this take some time to create, especially if you’re new to the software, but as I’ve already said in previous articles, if you can think of it, you can create it in this software.

It’s taken me a long time to get to a place where I’m happy with my setup and stream, and I am still tweaking it. Still, with these three pieces of software and all this hardware at my disposal, I can create whatever I can to make my content stand out and be truly unique.

Feel free to pop by sometime and see what other additions I’ve made, such as the Thanos Snap.