Re: Best new laptop, for streaming?
I really wouldn't suggest a laptop for streaming. Firstly because your going to spend more money for less power in a laptop VS a desktop, and secondly because a desktop allows you to upgrade or separately buy whatever GPU, nicer soundcard, or capture card if needed that you prefer, where as with a laptop your stuck with what you've got.
On modern laptops (especially non gaming machines) your CPU and GPU are often throttled to avoid high heat consumption as well, which means you might end up paying for components that you aren't even getting your money's worth from.
Laptops do tend to run quieter which is good for recording your voice, but most don't have great mics built in either and their webcams are usually pretty crap too, plus the keyboard is connected to the same machine as the mic, and you can always invest in quieter fans for a desktop if you want anyway.
I guess it depends on how serious you are about this, since ideally you'd want an external webcam with some kind of adjustable mount, an external microphone with a shock mount and pop filter/windscreen or boom arm setup, or at least a high quality headset with builtin microphone, and if at all possible a basic external mixer as well.
Having good internet speeds and a hardwired ethernet connection to the modem is also very important for streaming consistency, speed more so if you will be streaming video as well.
A quieter keyboard, ideally one set up for gaming, as well as a decent mouse if you'll be playing games that use it, and a controller to get the best experience out of mainstream games are a good idea as well.
Regardless of if you will be going with a headset or regular headphones and a separate mic, it's vital that they have good sound isolation, otherwise you will get feedback from them in the mix.
Maybe make sure you have a chair that's comfortable and doesn't make allot of noise, and if your focused on video quality than possibly consider investing in some basic lighting and a backdrop.
You don't need much GPU or CPU power to run older titles, so you can skimp a bit there if you want (unless your thinking about future proofing) but this isn't going to be particularly simple any way you slice it.
I'm unqualified to give any specifics (especially regarding capture cards and such) as I haven't streamed my self, but these are the important things from what I understand.
If you want to do this properly than it could be a pretty big investment, and while you can always cut corners, your quality and ease of use will usually suffer alongside that.
Doing audio only streams can simplify things allot, and while I don't know much about the process, I believe that you can get away with lower specs on your PC if you have a preexisting console that you can stream from instead of playing on the computer directly, but that can introduce it's own issues as well from what I understand, especially if the console and computer aren't both on ethernet connections.
You don't necessarily need an external mixer either, but you usually get better bang for your buck with XLR microphones VS USB models, and the software solutions for separating your audio streams (for instance screen reader, messaging notifications, voice, and game audio) are often very finicky and when combined with the difficulties of using OBS it often kills streams before they can even get started.
I just really wouldn't take the plunge into this kind of thing unless your really serious about it. You could stick to videos or podcasts and still get a good following if your engaging enough and play games that people want to see.
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