Need help building PC for max settings and streaming. (<$500 budget)

Colombinican·Apr 12, 2016·1 votes·593 views

Hello all, Kryzer here, and I want to build a PC for the first time. I've been running on a crappy HP laptop for quite some time, and want to take the next step: streaming. I have never been able to run league on high settings, instead I run on medium, so this is all new to me.

My tech knowledge is atrocious, so please excuse me when I question why some parts are better than others. I hear AMD is great for low-med end rigs/games, and of course intel rocks the nation with high end, but that's expensive. I've also heard about GTX graphic cards? I get confused.

Please help! Thanks!

6 Comments

FACE THE WlNDApr 12, 20161 votes

Alienware alpha.

DrCyanideApr 12, 20161 votes

League doesn't need anything too fancy to run at max graphics, so your concern with a graphics card will be if you want to stream other games. A $50-75 graphics card will likely do just fine for League.

For RAM, somewhere between 4GB and 8GB should do fine.

I run quad core Intel i5's on the computers I've built in an attempt to future proof them for other games. You could go with something cheaper for League and be all right, but I wouldn't go for the bottom of the barrel. After all, you do need to run your web browser, streaming software, and League at the same time.

I'd personally highly recommend a Solid State Drive. If your computer crashes, you're back up and in game in about 30 seconds instead of 5-10 minutes (less downtime for your stream as well). If you're looking to upload your content to YouTube, then I'd probably get a larger Hard Disk Drive as well. The ideal (although not set in stone) rule with this setup is that your OS and games go on the SSD, while the saved videos and your other documents go on the HDD. If I recall correctly, Windows 10 does a great job handling a new install on computers with both an SSD and HHD, but if I'm wrong you can search online how to set that up.

I personally recommend Open Broadcast Software for streaming if you're not already using it. It's free, and there are a few plugins that will automatically change your stream layout depending on which screen you're on (so one for Champ Select, one for Loading Screen, one for In Game, etc.)

ColombinicanApr 13, 20161 votes

{quoted}

League doesn't need anything too fancy to run at max graphics, so your concern with a graphics card will be if you want to stream other games. A $50-75 graphics card will likely do just fine for League.

For RAM, somewhere between 4GB and 8GB should do fine.

I run quad core Intel i5's on the computers I've built in an attempt to future proof them for other games. You could go with something cheaper for League and be all right, but I wouldn't go for the bottom of the barrel. After all, you do need to run your web browser, streaming software, and League at the same time.

I'd personally highly recommend a Solid State Drive. If your computer crashes, you're back up and in game in about 30 seconds instead of 5-10 minutes (less downtime for your stream as well). If you're looking to upload your content to YouTube, then I'd probably get a larger Hard Disk Drive as well. The ideal (although not set in stone) rule with this setup is that your OS and games go on the SSD, while the saved videos and your other documents go on the HDD. If I recall correctly, Windows 10 does a great job handling a new install on computers with both an SSD and HHD, but if I'm wrong you can search online how to set that up.

I personally recommend Open Broadcast Software for streaming if you're not already using it. It's free, and there are a few plugins that will automatically change your stream layout depending on which screen you're on (so one for Champ Select, one for Loading Screen, one for In Game, etc.)

Thanks a bunch for your reply! So I'll look into an i5 quad core, and probably some sort of AMD graphics card. As for the SSD, you are recommending having both? Could I just choose to run with a SSD? Or would having a HDD as well save my ass tons of stress with videos and such?

DrCyanideApr 13, 20161 votes

No recommendation on SSD/HDD. SSD's are getting cheaper, but are more expensive for storage space than HDD. For example, on Newegg.com there's a SSD and HDD on sale for about the same price, the SSD can store 512GB while the HDD can store 4TB, eight times as much.

If you have a lot of music and photos, or if you're going to be editing videos and uploading them somewhere else, then a HDD will be a necessity.

I got by with a SSD only for about a year on my computer before the storage space became too small for me and I needed to get a HDD to go with it. If you go that route, know that you will probably need to look up instructions for how to move your Documents and similar folders to the HDD by default.

ColombinicanApr 13, 20161 votes

{quoted}

No recommendation on SSD/HDD. SSD's are getting cheaper, but are more expensive for storage space than HDD. For example, on Newegg.com there's a SSD and HDD on sale for about the same price, the SSD can store 512GB while the HDD can store 4TB, eight times as much.

If you have a lot of music and photos, or if you're going to be editing videos and uploading them somewhere else, then a HDD will be a necessity.

I got by with a SSD only for about a year on my computer before the storage space became too small for me and I needed to get a HDD to go with it. If you go that route, know that you will probably need to look up instructions for how to move your Documents and similar folders to the HDD by default.

Thank you. So if I plan on running a Youtube channel alongside my stream I should get a HDD. And it seems like the SSD will be more reliable when it comes to reducing stream downtime and increasing overall performance.

Xx420n0sc0p3sxXApr 12, 20161 votes

Dont get alien ware. I dont care what face the wlnd said, alien ware is over priced. For around 500 dollars, I would go for an i5 to i7. Atleast 8gb of ram, DO NOT get lower. My graphics knowledge is lacking, so I cant give input there.

I recommend shopping on new egg.