Streaming PC UK — Custom-Built for Twitch & YouTube
Streaming puts unique demands on your PC. You're gaming and broadcasting simultaneously — your system needs to handle both without dropping frames on either. The good news: modern hardware handles single-PC streaming extremely well. Here's what you need, and what we recommend.
In short
- Streaming means gaming and broadcasting at the same time, and modern hardware handles both on one machine.
- The key is hardware video encoding — NVIDIA NVENC on the RTX 5000 series encodes the stream on the graphics card, leaving the processor free.
- A two-PC setup is overkill for most people in 2026; a single well-specced machine is enough.
- Three tiers: 1080p60 streaming on a budget build, maximum-quality 1080p while gaming at 1440p in the middle, and 1440p or 4K with overlays at the top.
- Every build is assembled and stress-tested in the UK with a 3-year warranty and free next-day delivery.
How PC Streaming Works — Hardware Encoding vs Software
The key to smooth single-PC streaming is hardware video encoding:
- NVIDIA NVENC (RTX 5000 series): Dedicated encoding hardware on the GPU — encodes your stream without using CPU resources. RTX 5000's NVENC quality is excellent, rivalling software x264 at a fraction of the CPU cost.
- AMD AMF (RX 9000 series): AMD's hardware encoder. Strong performance, especially with the newer RDNA 4 architecture.
- Intel Quick Sync (Core Ultra / 14th Gen): Intel's hardware encoder — available even on Intel Arc GPUs.
With hardware encoding enabled in OBS Studio, Streamlabs, or XSplit, even a mid-range build streams at high quality without gaming performance drops.
Recommended Streaming PC Builds
Budget Streaming PC — From £1,118
Ryzen 5 9600 or Core i5-14400 with RTX 5060 or Arc B580. Hardware NVENC/AMF encoding means you can stream at 1080p60 or 1080p720p without CPU impact. Works well for Twitch at 6000kbps or YouTube at 1080p.
Browse RTX 5060 builds from £1,118 →
Mid-Range Streaming PC — From £1,168
RTX 5060 Ti or RX 9060 XT 16GB paired with Ryzen 7 9700X. Streams 1080p at maximum quality, games at 1440p simultaneously. More CPU headroom for CPU-demanding game titles.
Browse RTX 5060 Ti 16GB builds →
Professional Streaming Workstation — From £1,474
The setup for 1440p or 4K streaming with face cam, overlays, alerts, and game capture all running without compromise. RTX 5070 with Ryzen 9 9950X or Core Ultra 9 — 16+ cores and NVENC mean you can also run stream recording, scene transitions, and multi-camera setups simultaneously.
Browse RTX 5070 builds from £1,474 →
What About a Dedicated Stream PC?
Some streamers use a two-PC setup (gaming PC + dedicated encoding PC). This is overkill for most people in 2026 — modern hardware encoders are good enough for a single-PC setup. If you're running at a truly professional level (4K60 with multiple inputs), contact us to discuss a dual-PC configuration.
Software We Recommend for Streaming
- OBS Studio (free) — the industry standard. Use with NVENC/AMF encoding.
- Streamlabs — OBS-based with built-in widgets and alerts. Slightly heavier on resources.
- XSplit — polished paid option with strong encoding support.
All our builds come with Windows 11 Home pre-installed — fully compatible with all streaming software.
Build Your Streaming PC
From £1,118 · 3-Year Warranty · Free Next-Day UK Delivery · Always £100 Below eBay
Configure Your Streaming Build →Building for work as well as play? Try the dedicated Intel Workstation Builder or AMD Workstation Builder.