Show Us Your Rig: the PC Gamer streaming rig

While we normally feature developers or PC gaming personalities, this week's Show Us Your Rig is a bit different. I'd like to proudly present PC Gamer's streaming rig! We've recently started livestreaming from our Twitch channel three days a week, and we do it all from this set-up. As I am also in charge of our livestream, I'll be interviewing myself. Off to a good start already, aren't we Tom? We sure are!

What's in your PC?

We are usually streaming from the LPC Jr., the living room version of our irresponsibly powerful PC, the Large Pixel Collider. It's powerful enough to stream at high quality, but quieter than its larger counterpart.

• Case: Digital Storm Bolt II chassis
• Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Impact
• CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K
• GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Black
• RAM: 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX
• Storage: Two Samsung 840 Evo 1TB SSDs
• OS: Windows 8.1 Pro
• Monitors: BenQ XL240G as the main monitor, and a Dell U2410 just to read chat and check the stream.
• Mouse: Roccat Kone XTD
• Keyboard: Roccat Isku FX (was using a Corsair Vengeance K70, but had to switch to a quieter one)
• Headset: Steelseries 5Hv3
• Mic: Blue Yeti
• Webcam: Microsoft LifeCam Studio

What's the most interesting/unique part of your setup?

Definitely the posters on the back wall. I get at least one person per stream envying our posters of TF2's Spy and Lucas Arts' The Dig in Twitch chat. Truth be told, I'd probably run away with them if nobody would notice they were gone.

What's always within arm's reach on your desk?

My phone, a gamepad, and a glass of water: For the phone, having another screen to check chat and work messages on so I don't have to alt-tab out my game mid-stream is really useful. As for the gamepad, I am personally a mouse and keyboard guy all the way, but there are some games that just simply don't work as well with that control scheme—something I take big issue with, but a discussion for another day. My bias aside, I want our stream to be entertaining, so I resort to the gamepad when a game calls for one. And the water because talking for two hours straight is rough on the voice! For me, drinking water on stream is a delicate balance of soothing my throat and not making myself have to use the bathroom before it's over...

What are you playing right now?

I am streaming each new wing of Hearthstone's Blackrock Mountain adventure every Friday for the next four weeks. Otherwise, we usually play something different every stream, a lot of the time they are games that haven't come out yet like when we streamed Titan Souls or Pillars of Eternity.

At home, I'm playing The Talos Principle, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.

What's your favorite game and why?

My favorite game to stream is probably Hearthstone. It's got the potential for crazy stuff to happen—as you can see from last Friday's highlights—and the pace of it allows for a nice balance of talking about the game and interacting with chat. It's also a game I think I am genuinely good at, which is not a luxury I have while streaming preview games.

Favorite game overall, I'm not so sure about. I've asked this question to developers so many times and I've never tried to answer it for myself! I'm not sure if this is strictly my favorite, but Beyond Good and Evil is definitely high on the list. It had so many individually fun gameplay elements all rolled into one, and the story and world it created was incredibly compelling.

Be sure to tune into our Twitch channel Mondays and Fridays at 3pm PDT and Wednesdays at 10am PDT. Also, check out our backlog of Show Us Your Rigs, with developers like Cliff Bleszinski, Notch, and Josh Sawyer.