Dual PC streaming setup
Also called: two PC setup, dual computer stream
Two machines, one stream. The gaming PC does nothing but play. Its output runs through a capture card into a second machine that handles the encoder, the scenes, the alerts and the chat. The point is isolation. A heavy overlay or a crashed encoder cannot cost you frames in the game, and you can rebuild the whole layout mid-session without touching what the viewer sees of the gameplay.
What people underestimate is audio. Getting game sound, party chat, music and your own microphone onto the right machine and the right track needs a mixer or a virtual routing setup, and that is where most builds stall. Hardware encoders on current graphics cards have made the second machine optional for a lot of people.