Cheap Streaming PC Build

Creating a cheap streaming pc build that you can game and stream on at the same time is never easy. We did the research to provide you with a good cost to performance ratio.

Looking for a Budget Friendly Entry Point to Streaming on PC While Having Decent Performance?

I’ve seen a lot of streamers and content creators talking about creating a budget streaming pc build that they can game and stream on at the same time. 

The hard part is getting your performance out of this machine as you tend to spend as little as possible for it. 

There’s no easy way for me to say this, but you will need to spend some money on a decent CPU and video card.

There’s no way to avoid this unless you get some used parts. To get an efficient budget streaming pc build, we need to focus on the best CPU and video card we can get in our allocated budget and then make the rest of the parts fit within the scope of what we choose.

As a result, we will have only have builds tailored towards AMD.

Currently, AMD has the best cost to performance CPUs on the market, and Intel isn’t even close to being considered in a budget build with Ryzen’s CPUs on the market. 

Don’t forget you are on a budget and I will get you the best build possible!

Lowest Cost to Performance Ratio

AMD CPU and GPU

AMD processors have been one of the go to’s for price vs. performance for a while now. 

Furthermore, with their high number of cores and threads, I find they are better suited for multitasking, such as gaming and streaming at the same time vs. their competitor Intel. 

Hence, if you are on a tight budget, AMD should be the processor you choose.

We picked other budget-friendly parts that offer reliable performance while saving you money. We double-checked the compatibility with the motherboard, the CPU, and the Memory. 

As a result, you will get a fully reliable working build if you get these parts.

The Hard drive is interchangeable, so if you don’t want that amount of storage, you can opt-out for a cheaper one with less room. We picked this solid-state hard drive for people who are looking to upgrade into something better. 

Similarly, you might already have a hard drive from a pre-existing build that you can swap in with no issues. Therefore, for the price of this hard drive, it was just too hard not to put it up as it is under 100$ for 1 TB storage on a solid-state. That’s a good deal.

Furthermore, another performance part that we needed to spend a bit more on was the video card. Trying to find a budget video card that offers excellent performance at 1080p was pretty tough. 

We ended getting the RX 590 Video Card, and it has a price point of around $200. 

You likely won’t be able to play the newest games on Ultra/High settings. But, you will have an enjoyable gaming experience if you opt for Medium settings instead.

Finally, the rest of the gear we need is a power supply and a computer case. 

We can save money by getting a cheaper case (that still looks good) and a power supply that has a good 80+ Bronze efficiency rating that will perform reliably for the budget at hand.

Higher Cost to Performance Ratio

AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU (22% Performance Increase)

Similarly to the list above, we opted in for a GTX 1660 TI Video card from Nvidia. 

The rest of the computer parts can remain the same as its an excellent budget-friendly starting point. 

The video card is better performing than its counterpart, the RX 590. It is around 22% faster in terms of speed and offers about 23% more FPS’s in games in the 1080p resolution.

Because of the speed increase, it also has a higher price sitting at around 260-290$. 

The difference with this is you can opt-in for High/Medium settings in your games, which will increase the quality of your stream by everything looking a bit better.

Interchangeable Parts

CPU and Motherboard (19% Performance Increase)

The Interchangeable parts would be the processor and a motherboard.

They do say that the Ryzen 5 3600 can work with the B450 motherboard, but you might need a BIOS update. If that’s the case, you will need a different CPU to get it to work beforehand. That’s why I decided to choose an already compatible motherboard that has a similar price.

In contrast, the Ryzen 5 3600 offers close to a 19% increase of speed vs. the Ryzen 5 2600 CPU. 

So, if you don’t mind spending an extra $100, I would recommend it for a smoother and better performing experience.

In Conclusion

Technology is always changing, and new products come out every quarter of a year. For that reason, we will try to keep this list as up-to-date as possible. 

If you find better prices, please let me know so I can update this list. I hope this helps anyone that is looking into a new build or if they were looking to upgrade.