What specs do I need to stream?

I would like to stream my games. Mostly League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, and maybe Borderlands 2 and Dota 2.

Right now when I stream my computer FPS drops and gets choppy. I'm assuming I need more RAM? My internet upload is kinda slow (about 0.7 Mbps) so streaming 1080 content is probably a no-go.

Here's my current specs. Any advice and what I should get would be apprectiated.


ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131644

2 x GIGABYTE GV-R695OC-1GD Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018

AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition Deneb 3.5GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDZ970FBGMBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL9D-4GBRM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231419

SSD
Samsung 840 Pro Series 256 GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193

Streaming is most reliant on two things, Processor and your connection upload (and your upload is really low for streaming). RAM helps to a point (you are on the low end with only 4). What kind of resolution are you trying to stream at? What streaming software are you using?

I'm using Xsplit currently. I also saw a recommendation of Open Broadcaster Software.

I streamed with a similar setup, although i was overclocked to 4ghz on my 965. You should still be able to though. Yeah OBS is pretty awesome and i would highly suggest it. A good way to test your streaming capabilities is to just make your twitch page private and stream. You can then see if you lag too much or if your cpu is dying from it. If you dont have an issue with that then just watch the vod and see how the quality is. Upload speed will also be a bottle neck but if you have 2+ you should be able to find settings that look good. Ive seen people with 1up that can still stream and it doesnt look hideous.

OBS is a bit more user friendly imo, although you lose access to the large pool of plugins you get with Xsplit. Your broadcast resolution is going to play a big part in stream quality/lag (higher res eats more upload). As far as game lag while streaming, this will require some experimentation with game and stream settings to find the sweet spot for your rig and connection. Different games will run at different quality depending on how much they are demanding from your system on top of the live video capture and transmission going on. Of the games you listed I have only ever streamed LoL and I see my ping go up a bit, but not a high frame loss at full screen res broadcast, but I am playing with about 3mb upload and a high end i5.