Live Stream League of Legends

trecor

Honorable
Jan 26, 2013
5
0
10,510
I'm attempting to help my brother build his first computer, but his intended use isn't entirely within the realm of my know how. Specifically, he's an avid LoL player, and he wants to be able to play it at 1080p with max settings and not dip below 60 FPS in full on particle flying team fights, while simultaneously using a streaming service to stream at a solid and smooth framerate not below 30 FPS and 720P. I realize he'll need to upgrade his internet, but no point in that until he's got the hardware. He also wants to be able to play on one monitor, and use a second monitor for movies, browsing, music, etc. Finally, he wants to be able to play any and all new or soon to be released games at high or above settings. My questions pretty much center around CPU, GPU, Motherboard, and RAM. Does he need hyperthreading? How much VRAM is enough? He's not on a strict budget, but bloat elimination is nice. Maximum price/performance without shying away too hard on the price. The new ludicrous AMD GPU prices are steering me towards nVidia, and as he's not on a strict budget, I see no point going AMD for the processor. My thoughts were towards either a 4670K or 4770K depending on if the hyperthreading would be needed for the multitasking of gaming and streaming. GPU I have no clue, GTX 770 4GB, 760 2GB, I'm lost at the multi monitor streaming again. Motherboard, pretty much anything with a solid Intel NIC and solid onboard audio. RAM, just a 2x8 kit of DDR3 1600 with low latency for the best price/sale/brand reputabililty to be had at the time. As I stated, he's got the case and the PSU already, he's getting an SSD for a boot drive, and he has a copy of Windows 7 Pro ready and waiting, so everything else with a budget between $1500 and $2000. Needs monitors (he'll probably buy one at a time to start to spread out the spendage.), mouse and keyboard, but I'm not really looking for advice on those. Thanks for all of your help, I love coming to Tom's for advice, never been steered wrong before.
 
Solution
You are not far off at all.

A Quad core i5 @ 3.4GHz or better will do just fine for the CPU. I prefer Asus motherboards and almost any in that CPU socket type will do just fine. There is no need to get a CPU ending in K if you don't intend on overclocking the rig.

The GTX 760 2GBVRAM will do everything he needs including running the second monitor. If the money truly isn't an issue, the GTX 780Ti will give him tons of overhead going forward(multi-monitor gaming on ultra settings). The GTX 770 sits somewhere in between those two GPU's. 8GB of DDR3 @ 1600MHz should do just fine. 16GB of said RAM will add maintenance/perfomance benefits to the SSD in the long run. BenQ has a nice 27" 144Hz panel at reasonable rates. LoL/Riot Games...
You are not far off at all.

A Quad core i5 @ 3.4GHz or better will do just fine for the CPU. I prefer Asus motherboards and almost any in that CPU socket type will do just fine. There is no need to get a CPU ending in K if you don't intend on overclocking the rig.

The GTX 760 2GBVRAM will do everything he needs including running the second monitor. If the money truly isn't an issue, the GTX 780Ti will give him tons of overhead going forward(multi-monitor gaming on ultra settings). The GTX 770 sits somewhere in between those two GPU's. 8GB of DDR3 @ 1600MHz should do just fine. 16GB of said RAM will add maintenance/perfomance benefits to the SSD in the long run. BenQ has a nice 27" 144Hz panel at reasonable rates. LoL/Riot Games tourney's use them pretty much exclusively at this point.

I wouldn't touch any CPU below the 3.4GHz stock speed setting for what he wants. Closer to 3.8 or 4.0GHz would be even better. LoL does not make use of Hyper-threading. It only uses my four physical cores when I play it.
 
Solution

trecor

Honorable
Jan 26, 2013
5
0
10,510
Thanks for your well thought out response. I also prefer Asus motherboards. I think in the long run the overclocking will be worth it, so I think I'll stick with a K series processor for my recommendation to him. I get what you're saying about the single thread application for League (and most other games), I was curious if the hyperthreading would prove useful with the simultaneous live streaming, or if he should choose to try and play, stream, Skype, and dub some kind of music for his "audience" all at the same time. Not sure if that level of multitasking would at all tax the 4 physical cores to the point that hyperthreading would be worth the extra $100. I was initially leaning towards the 780Ti but wondered if that was just ridiculous over the top. I recently put a 760 in my wife's computer and I'm quite impressed with the quality of its price/performance ratio. Anyways, I'll leave the GPU up to him after I lay out the pros and cons of each, but what do you think about the hyperthreading for his potential use?
 
Most of the LoL streamers use Twitch. I've never made it that far as I don't believe too many people would be interested in my Silver level of play =)

Someone more familiar with the ins & outs of twitch TV might be able to chime in on it's resource requirements. I can't imagine it would be very taxing on CPU cycles given its popularity and at 720P streaming.... I would think even a DSL 1.5Mb/s Up would be sufficient. Of course a 3 or 6Mbps upload should easily handle it.