Question / Help Building a Streaming Rig from scratch

[hovering monolith]

Hello OBS community, i'm currently in the proccess of building a streaming rig, however as of the present time im still in the
planning phase. I've already spent quite a few nights googling tons of stuff, but it seems every source tells a different story -
therefore i figured this would be the best place to ask my questions. I will try to provide as much information as possible from my side to make this as convenient as possible for the noble computer wizard who might reply.

CPU
Primarily i will be playing(and streaming) world of warcraft and since it is known the game literally uses a single core,
a powerful CPU, even better overclocked will do wonders in this game. I tried pinpointing potential CPU's for my rig and i
came to the conclusion the i7-4820k would be a good choice, as it apparently offers good overclocking possibilites and since no game&application make use of additional cores, buying anything beyond a quad core cpu would be wasted
(or so i thought).

What i didnt put in the equation was obviously OBS & Win8.1 wich i never used before, same applies for Win7, therefore
i have no idea about all this, now looking at the i7-4820k and the i7-4930k my CPU related questions are:

a.) how well do Windows8.1 & OBS benefit from a powerful multi core CPU like the i7-4930k?
b.) Will Win8.1 & OBS benefit from hyperthreading?
c.) regardless of 4820k/4930k, how much of a difference will make overclocking in regards to OBS?

GPU
I've also found out by now that OBS apparently utilizes the GPU for streaming, i usually play games that aren't very GPU
demanding and if i do, i almost always play them at lower settings, as i find a lot of stuff (like shadows) distracting.
My GPU related questions are the following:

a.) how much of a difference will make a powerful GPU in regards to OBS?
b.) assuming i'll be playing with 2x 24" monitors, how much VRAM should the GPU have?(general question)

Thats it for now, if you require any additional information let me know.

Regards!

 

[dodgepong]

More cores and hyperthreading are definitely better. According to some x264 benchmarks, the 4930k is definitely the best choice. Even the 4770k would eke out the 4820k.

As for GPU, I recommend nVidia if you can. Make sure you don't get a GPU that ends in -50 or lower (such as the 710 or 630 or something like that). 1 GB of VRAM should be fine, 2 GB is awesome, but not ncecessary for OBS unless you're using a bunch of high-resolution sources at the same time, especially capture cards.

 

[hovering monolith]

Thanks for the reply.

I was planning on getting a nVidia GPU, but exactly how much of a difference will the GPU make in
regards to OBS? Due to me usually not playing GPU demanding games, i thought about getting a budget card
like the GTX 760, but im not sure yet.

Also, what about the overclocking, any ideas?

 

[dodgepong]

The 760 is fine.

And yes, overclocking will help. The 4930k is already pretty powerful at stock, but overclocking would make it even better.

 

[hovering monolith]

Thanks again for the reply.

One last question, to what kind of extend will OBS use the GPU, how relevant is the GPU for OBS and what
kind of a difference would the jump from lets say the GTX 760 to the GTX780 make for OBS?

 

[dodgepong]

That won't make much of a difference for OBS. The main pressure that OBS puts on the GPU is with regards to VRAM and VRAM speed. Both of those GPUs are very capable to do what OBS needs. In fact, if you're not doing anything else with your GPU besides using OBS, you can often get away with just using integrated graphics.

However, I don't recommend running OBS and games on just the integrated GPU, so you should get a discrete card.