Gaming PC SI covers the gear behind streaming and content creation specifically for gamers — what to buy, what to skip, and what’s actually causing your stream to lag or drop frames before you spend money on new hardware. This site is for streamers moving from a single PC to a dual-PC setup, creators picking a capture card or microphone for the first time, and anyone whose audio or video sync has quietly gone wrong in OBS. Every recommendation is tested on a dual-PC streaming rig with capture-card benchmarking and audio measurement tools, so gear picks reflect how a component performs while actually encoding and streaming, not just sitting on a desk. If your stream has a specific problem right now — dropped frames, audio sync, or an underpowered PC — the troubleshooting guides below are built to get you to the fix directly.

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Best PC For Streaming — the build specs that actually matter for encoding while gaming.

Best Capture Card — our current top pick after bench-testing capture latency and quality.

Single PC Vs Dual PC Streaming Compared — when a second PC is worth the cost and complexity.

Best Streaming Microphone — audio quality tested against room noise, not just a spec sheet.

Best Webcam For Streamers — picks that hold up in real streaming light, not studio conditions.

Best Dual PC Streaming Setup — a full setup guide once you’ve decided to go dual-PC.

Streaming Gear

This is the largest category on the site because “streaming gear” covers everything from lighting to a full Stream Deck alternative, and most of it gets bought in the wrong order — people buy a ring light before fixing dropped frames, or a green screen before their encoder settings are dialed in. We test each product while actually running a live-style stream on our rig, checking whether it solves the problem it’s marketed for under real conditions. If you’re just getting started, fix your encoder and connection first using the guides here before spending on visual gear.

Best PC For Streaming — the core hardware decision before any accessory purchase.

Best Webcam For Streamers — camera picks tested under typical streaming lighting.

Best Stream Deck Alternatives — scene-switching hardware at different price points.

Best Lighting For Streaming — lighting that actually improves camera quality, not just brightness.

Audio

Bad audio drives viewers off a stream faster than a mediocre camera does, which is why this category gets equal weight to video gear despite fewer posts. We measure microphones and interfaces on the rig rather than in a quiet studio, because room noise and desk vibration are what most streamers actually deal with. This category also covers setup — mic placement, gain staging, and choosing between USB and XLR — because a good microphone poorly configured sounds worse than a cheap one set up correctly.

Best Streaming Microphone — top picks measured against real desk and room noise.

Best Microphone Arm — reducing handling noise and desk clutter.

Best Audio Interface For Streaming — when a dedicated interface beats a USB mic.

Audio Setup Guide For Streamers — gain staging and placement before you blame the hardware.

Creator PCs

A streaming or video-editing PC has different priorities than a pure gaming rig — encoder performance, sustained multi-core load, and fast storage for large project files matter more than peak single-thread gaming FPS. This category covers building or buying for that workload specifically, including the dual-PC question that trips up a lot of streamers moving past a single-machine setup. If you edit video as well as stream, start with the video-editing PC guide before the general streaming PC one — the priorities shift.

Best Gaming PC For Video Editing — specs that matter for editing on top of gaming.

Best SSD For Video Editing — storage speed for large project files and scrubbing footage.

Best Dual PC Streaming Setup — a full walkthrough once you’ve committed to two machines.

Single PC Vs Dual PC Streaming Compared — the honest performance and cost trade-off.

Capture Cards

Capture cards are a narrower purchase than most streaming gear — most streamers need exactly one, and the decision mostly comes down to latency and whether you’re capturing console or a second PC. We bench capture latency and image quality directly on our dual-PC rig rather than relying on spec-sheet claims, since that’s the number that actually determines whether your stream feels responsive.

Best Capture Card — our current top pick after latency and quality testing.

How To Record Gameplay Without Lag — settings and hardware choices that prevent capture lag.

Encoder Settings Explained For Streamers — getting the most out of whatever card or PC you’re capturing with.

How we test

Testing on this site is run by Elena Marchetti, our Streaming & Creator Editor with 7 years in this space, on a dual-PC streaming rig built specifically for capture-card benchmarking and audio measurement. Capture cards are measured for latency and dropped-frame rate while actually encoding a live-style stream, not in isolation. Microphones and audio interfaces are tested against real desk and room noise rather than a quiet booth. Where a claim depends on conditions we can’t fully replicate — a specific viewer’s home network, for example, or a game engine’s unique encoding load — we flag it as general guidance based on comparable setups rather than a measured result.

How this site makes money

Gaming PC SI earns a commission through the Amazon Associates program on qualifying purchases made through our links, at no extra cost to you. That commission doesn’t affect which gear we recommend or how guides are ranked — bench performance on our streaming rig decides that, not payout. Full details are in our affiliate disclosure.