Streaming Gear Recommendations 2024
Streaming is a potentially inexpensive hobby, but it gets expensive if you let it. This article aims to guide you toward your eventually purchases to improve your streaming setup. If I help you with anything, please let me know! I thrive off feedback. I lean closer to the cheaper side of these products, but I'm giving you 2 options in each category: a cheap option and a semi-expensive option that's worth the extra cost. Many of these products will have referral links which may earn me a commission if you buy the item I linked. I appreciate the support!
Best Webcam 2024
Cheap option: Logitech Brio 101
There was a time when I would have recommended the Logitech C922 or C920E from Ebay for best bang for your buck, but prices have dropped and new products have entered the scene, and Ebay prices haven't adjusted well for the old stuff. Nowadays, the best and easiest to get option is the Logitech Brio 101. It supports 1080p resolution and is very similar in specs to a C922. It's often on sale and I've seen it as low as $20, but the normal price seems to be ~$36. Definitely shop around for this one, but it's already pretty inexpensive, so if you impulse bought this cam, I wouldn't judge ya.
Get the Logi Brio 101 on Amazon for $36 USD.
Expensive but really cool option: Insta360 Link 2
This is a beast of a camera! It has so many features I wish I had at my disposal that I may pick one of these up once my Micro Center card is paid down from that 3D printer shopping spree I went on a couple months ago. Jayz2Cents made a really informative video about this webcam recently:
Get the Insta360 Link 2 on Amazon for $199 USD. You'll love this webcam!
Best Keyboard 2024
There are a lot of keyboards on Amazon, and they come in a lot of price ranges and feature sets, so depending on your budget and desires, the cheap option I've picked might not work for you. I'm also acknowledging that keyboard + mouse bundles are a very cheap route for newcomers to PC gaming to get started. That said, if you just need a keyboard and already have a mouse, you'll likely prefer to spend the whole budget on a really good keyboard. For that reason, I'm also placing a bundle pick below this section.
Cheap option: TECURS Wireless 2.4G Keyboard
The company, "TECURS", is pretty unknown, but I was exposed to this brand's keyboards through Amazon's reviewer rewards program a while ago, and I wasvery impressed with the quality of this keyboard, especially for the price of only $25. Get it here if you're in the market for something cheap that doesn't suck.
Some criticisms for those whom it may concern:
The keyboard does not come with anything other than the dongle. The phone in the image is not included. The keys are very flat, which is stylish but hard to type fast with. The WASD keys are not anti-ghosted, and nothing about this keyboard screams 'mechanical' at all. The battery is rechargeable, which is a good thing in most use cases, but it's worth noting that the battery only lasts about 8 hours with heavy use (lights on, no sleeping). The connection port on the keyboard is USBC, so you may run into some compatibility issues with very old computers which don't support USB3. The function keys are behind a function lock key combo, which can be a little frustrating at first, but it's an easy thing to get used to.
Expensive option: Logitech G915 Lightspeed
I've been on an all Logitech system of peripherals for a little over a year, and I must say, the best thing I got for this set was its keyboard, the Logitech G915 Lightspeed. Yeah, it's expensive, but it lasts a long time with tons of abuse. The keys feel great and sound very clicky... almost like a light typewriter. There's a variant of this keyboard without a numpad, but they cost about the same, so unless you're anti-numpad, get the bigger one. Even the bigger version with the numpad is still a very thin profile and looks great!
Best Keyboard + Mouse Combo 2024
My educated guess is you'll enjoy this bundle more than most others. It's a wireless kit with a somewhat stylish look, dedicated multimedia keys, function key toggle, and a built-in tablet stand. The mouse also comes with the standard side buttons. The tablet stand can be used for a drawing pen, but having a dock for a tablet helps a lot when you're trying to use a Stream Deck alternative. More on that below.
Best Gaming Mouse 2024
I'm a big fan of the MMO style mouse designs. I avoid regular old style mice, because they just don't have enough inputs for my needs.
Cheap option:Redragon M908 Impact RGB
You know the RGB adds speed, right? Jokes aside, this is a wired mouse within a $30 budget. You can find a wireless variant for not much more, but not everyone cares about wireless, so I went for this version. Regardless, this is a very cheap-looking mouse but has exceptional build quality and works out of box with Windows 10+. The MMO side buttons are very useful for gaming as you can assign these buttons for sprays, melee attacks, etc. Unfortunately, the software for managing the key mappings for this mouse outside of games is very basic and has crashed my PC more than once. The wire is also very bulky. You can buy this monstrosity at Amazon for $28.
Stupidly expensive option: Logitech G600 or Corsair Scimitar Elite
I hate that I'm recommending this mouse, because it was essentially the first MMO mouse I ever used and it's over a decade old, having been released way back in 2012. (Reference: list of Logitech products from Wikipedia.) However, I have used this mouse most of the past 12 years very heavily and it has not only lasted longer than anything else but is also the most versatile mouse for streaming thanks to the Logitech + OBS + Discord software integration. It unfortunately is wired, and it's not as cheap as it should be, but the competition just doesn't compete well enough to move on from this masterpiece yet.
You can also get the Corsair Scimitar Elite, which has similar OBS and Discord integrations and is wireless, but the Corsair software messes up a lot more severely in my experience and has caused my family a lot of headaches. For this reason, even though the G600 is often priced absurdly high, it keeps the crown as best of the best in the MMO mouse category. You can get the Logitech G600 for $219 on Amazon right now, but it's been as low as $25 in 2023 and can likely be found much cheaper than $219 elsewhere.
Best Stream Deck 2024
Cheap option: tablet with Touch Portal software
In the interest of steering you in the right direction, you really should consider the tablet approach for a Stream Deck alternative. You might already have a decent tablet laying around which you don't really use for much and could dedicate to running some software that connects to OBS and other programs to make your life easier. If not, you may as well shop for a tablet on Amazon or check Ebay or something. Just make sure whatever tablet you buy is capable of running the newest version of Touch Portal, which you can check out here.
I personally use an old Lenovo Tab 2 I originally bought as a present for someone who unfortunately died. The tablet landed back in my lap and I thought I may as well use it for something. Note that for an additional $7 I could upgrade to have 2+ tablets connected to the Touch Portal software. This was a recent development, and I'm likely going to take advantage of it someday soon, but unfortunately this doesn't mean you can have 1 tablet control 2 computers, and I'm not very knowledgeable about the limitations of running this software in such a use case. You may have to run 2 instances of the desktop app and connect from 2 separate tablets.
There are many alternatives to Touch Portal out there, but if you want something that's as versatile as possible and somewhat reliable, Touch Portal is one of the best options. There are some free options out there, but I've had too many headaches with them all and settled on Touch Portal as my defacto standard for stream deck alternatives. Some other options included but weren't limited to Matric, Lioranboard/SAMMI, Unified Remote, and Macro Deck.
Expensive option: Elgato Stream Deck XL
You can get a Stream Deck XL for ~$250 on Amazon. I'm sure you can find it a little cheaper if you wait for a sale or buy it used, but there are cheaper, older, and smaller models of the Stream Deck out there, and other companies are finally starting to compete in this space, so if you give it a year or two, you'll likely see some new contenders and price drops! Some existing competition in this space include the Loupedeck Live and Razer's Stream Controller. I honestly don't know the competition well enough to recommend them even if they're cheaper.
Alternative for artists: TourBox NEO
Artists require a more tactile and haptic approach with buttons and knobs. There's an option tailored to you! It's the TourBox NEO for $169 on Amazon. I've dreamed of having something like this all my life, but to this day, I haven't had the opportunity to try these out. They look really useful, though! If you use a pen display, this thing might be incredibly useful to you.
Best Green Screen 2024
Green screens can go a long way toward making your stream or YouTube videos look way more professional... and could hide your mess of a bedroom. No judgment here, but the cheapest option is often just to clean up after yourself and take pride in your space.
Poorman's Green Screen: a small piece of fabric
You could go with one of those attach-to-your-chair setups, but I don't really like those for numerous reasons I won't delve into here. Instead, I suggest just buying a basic green fabric and mounting it to something. What you mount it to is up to you, of course, since it'd be very situational. Shop around for this one. Sales happen all the time with fabrics.
Of course, you could get creative with this and use the fabric to hide your body and be a floating head or something similar. There are green suits out there.
Mixed Reality Master: a very, very big fabric
Ok, this category is pretty straightforward. You spend more money to get more fabric to hide more space. If you're into mixed reality streaming, you might be tempted to paint a whole room green. I've personally gone down the path of buying tons of fabric and nailing it to the walls. This works somewhat, but it is a bit harder to clean. On the upside, the fabric acts as a sound dampener for your walls. As far as ceilings go, paint is really the best option. As far as floors go, I haven't found a cost effective solution for carpet, but you can manage a green rug that matches the fabric on the walls.
Alternatively, if you already invested in a really powerful graphics card, those can manage an impressive dynamic green screen key effect for a lot of overhead. It's fun to toy with, but the fabric and an actual keyed out color produces a better, more consistent and reliable result for less performance overhead. The dynamic GPU-powered effect is still useful for a lot of situations, though.
Best Graphics Card for Streaming 2024
Cheap option: RTX 3060 12GB
The higher you go with the GPU, the more you can push frames and shader effects. That said, most people aren't going to drop $2,000 on a new graphics card. That's a rich man's thing, and you're not that. You don't need the latest and greatest. The NVidia RTX 3060 12GB model from Zotac is well within most budgets at $320 new with an aftermarket price of about $240. This is going to be able to handle most games and also has plenty of VRAM and a dedicated chip for encoding tasks. It's worth noting that this isn't even close to ideal for VR streaming, but it'll work for most games since most games have been focusing lesser mobile hardware lately.
Costly option: RTX 4080 16GB
There's something satisfying about not having to read system requirements for games you want to play, and if you're a streamer, you need to be able to play with some overhead as well and may want to stream with all the bells and whistles not just of the games but of NVidia Broadcast. For that reason, you may not mind dropping thousands on a GPU. I recommend aiming for the ROG Strix 4080 Super from Asus for $1,200. The 4080 Super and the 4070 Ti are very similar offerings specs-wise, so if you can save a few hundred grabbing the 4070 Ti, do that. However, I saw the price of both at the time of this article was about the same. There's an AMD Radeon alternative, but I find NVidia much more reliable for streaming. Radeon's encoding just isn't as good in my experience, and many games don't work as well with Radeon for whatever reason. My track record with NVidia is just better.
Best Monitor Setup for Streaming 2024
Your graphics card might be a waste if your monitor is only 720p60. You will want to have at least a 1080p monitor for streaming, because 1080p is just standard nowadays. It's a baseline resolution for pretty much everyone now. Even if you only play retro games, you'll likely want the extra screen real estate for browsing the web and other non-gaming tasks while streaming. If you mostly play in VR, you can have virtual monitors, but it's quite nice to have one good monitor outside of VR just to keep an eye on OBS.
Cheap monitor: Samsung T35F 27-inch IPS
For those not yet in the know, word of caution when it comes to monitors: IPS can be hit-or-miss when it comes to response time and can look great but also look crazy bad. You have to dial the settings in very carefully for your use case. IPS panels can consume more power than other panels, too, so factor in the energy cost when deciding on a monitor. However, IPS panels can be insanely affordable, and that's what we're seeing with the Samsung T35F priced at $99 on Amazon. This monitor has VESA compatibility, which is becoming more common nowadays but is still something to watch out for.
Cheap monitor arm: Quarx
This VESA monitor arm supports up to 17.6 pounds or 8 kg, and the monitor we chose was only 5.2 pounds or 2.4 kg. At only $19 on Amazon, it's a steal. Yes, it's a little basic as far as arms go, but it provides decent height and reach and will be slightly more sturdy than most alternatives in its price range.
Cool monitor: LG UltraGear 45-inch OLED
This monitor is huge. It's basically a TV. I personally went with the LG UltraGear 27-inch 1440p 165Hz monitor a little over 2 years ago, and it was the most I could afford at the time, but it was very much worth it. Call me a LG fanboy if you want, but I was won over to the UltraGear line-up a while ago and have nothing but praise for it. You can get the 45-inch ultrawide monitor for $1040 on Amazon.
Cool monitor arm: North Bayou
It was a challenge to figure out the weight of the giant monitor, but it appears to be ~20 pounds. At 45 inches, it's hard to find an arm big enough for this monitor. However, I found one that seems to work and doesn't break the bank: The Nouth Bayou 11-35lb 35-45-inch arm for $42!
Best Microphone for Streaming 2024
Past visuals is audio. I'm by far not the best person to make microphone recommendations. I just use whatever sounds decent enough to get by. You may not even need a desk microphone if your headset includes a decent mic. That said, these are my top picks based on past experience.
Cheap option: FIFINE
I'll be honest and say this pick is based solely on price and brand recognition. Fifine brand has been making waves in the desk mic market for a few years now, and they tend to make really high quality mics for low budgets. I suggest this one for $27. It has a nice lighting effect and a screen filter. You'll want a microphone arm for this one, so here's a nice one (also by Fifine) I'd attach to the side of a desk. Normally, I'd say to get the bundle deal, but spending a few extra dollars to buy an arm separately makes the experience with this mic so much better. The bundles all include a very crappy arm that will likely frustrate you.
Expensive option: BEACN Dark Dynamic
Beacn is a brand I've seen only very recently, but they've been targeting the streamer demographic quite hard with what I can only describe as the neatest products possible. I tried a Beacn podcast setup at Micro Center and was blown away by the quality of both the microphone and the mixer. If you get this mic, you will need a mic arm for it. I actually think the same Fifine arm would work well for this, but of course, if you want to throw money away, Beacn makes their own arm for this mic for $95 on Amazon.
Best option for VR: Antlion Modmic Wireless
It's overly expensive for what it is, and unless you play a lot of VR, it isn't as beneficial as it seems. However, if you want to stream VR, this microphone is almost a must-have accessory. I used to use mine almost exclusively because it was easier to just move this mic around than switch audio devices. That said, there are some down sides to the modmic: First, there's no on/off switch. You hold the power button to turn it on and off. Second, every time you turn it on, you have to sync it to its dongle. The resync process is normally painless, but when it doesn't work, there's no easy fix, and power-cycling the device is a nightmare. As long as you never restart the PC or unplug the dongle or have USB port driver issues or have a power outage... you're fine. The ModMic Wireless is $139 on Amazon.
There are many alternatives to these recommendations out there. If you don't like these brands or the costs, shop around, and if you have questions, definitely ask them! Send me a DM on social media or email me about any questions regarding this article. I'll try my best to help... unless I hate you.