Building a streaming PC for teaching

[goodmallard]

Hi there,

I've been using OBS for teaeching elementary level classes online for the past 2 months and I love it!

However, my i5 5300u 8GB setup is getting a little long in the tooth for what I need it for- that is

-Record videos @ 1080p30 with lots of animations, use an 1080p30 webcam through a capture card, window capture at up to1080p, display videos, run browser scripts, record high quality audio and use music and, in the future, all sorts of other things. These would be uploaded to YouTube.
-Stream live videos to zoom using the virtual camera doing pretty much all of the above at as a high a quality as possible. My upload speed is a measly 5mb but there is not a lot I can do about it!

I've been looking for information on how to build a decent streaming setup with plenty of headroom, but nearly all of the build guides are geared towards gamers. I won't be doing any gaming at all on this system, but do want the ability to output my videos at a fairly decent standard as stated.

I want to pay about $500 and already own all the peripherals. I had started looking at benchmarks and different processors etc, but it's been so long since I built a computer that I don't really know where to start! Will I need a discrete graphics card? Would a Ryzen 3 be enough for this or is that cutting it too fine?

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Goodmallard

 

[goodmallard]

And I forgot to mention that I use a green screen on my main webcam as well as a colour correction filter and a separate webcam (my phone) to capture my hand writing things down.

Thanks!

 

[goodmallard]

And that also I may plan on using dual 1080p monitors- wow I really didn't realise how hard I wanted to push this poor little x250!

 

[neilis]

Stream at 720 instead of 1080. That and a discrete gpu should help.

 

[InteractiveDNA]

Hi there,

I've been using OBS for teaeching elementary level classes online for the past 2 months and I love it!

However, my i5 5300u 8GB setup is getting a little long in the tooth for what I need it for- that is

-Record videos @ 1080p30 with lots of animations, use an 1080p30 webcam through a capture card, window capture at up to1080p, display videos, run browser scripts, record high quality audio and use music and, in the future, all sorts of other things. These would be uploaded to YouTube.
-Stream live videos to zoom using the virtual camera doing pretty much all of the above at as a high a quality as possible. My upload speed is a measly 5mb but there is not a lot I can do about it!

I've been looking for information on how to build a decent streaming setup with plenty of headroom, but nearly all of the build guides are geared towards gamers. I won't be doing any gaming at all on this system, but do want the ability to output my videos at a fairly decent standard as stated.

I want to pay about $500 and already own all the peripherals. I had started looking at benchmarks and different processors etc, but it's been so long since I built a computer that I don't really know where to start! Will I need a discrete graphics card? Would a Ryzen 3 be enough for this or is that cutting it too fine?

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Goodmallard

I have a video specially about that on YT. Check it out!

 

[goodmallard]

Stream at 720 instead of 1080. That and a discrete gpu should help.

Thanks but I'd quite like to go for 1080 or at least try if not for the sake of future proofing!
Do you think this is too ambitious on a $500 budget?

Interactive DNA, I found your YouTube channel but I couldn't see the video specifically about hardware- could you point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Goodmallard

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Do you think this is too ambitious on a $500 budget?

A used computer for $500 what does what you want. sure
$500 for a new computer with headroom... no, not really
See my other posts ... short version is I was looking at AMD Ryzen 9 3900X as having 4+ years headroom, and power enough for video editing as well. As for GPU, nVidia GTX 1650 Super or better recommended for recent (Turing vs Pascal) NVENC support. Then at least 16BG RAM and for performance a NVME SSD. For reference, I recently got a business class new tower, with 5yr next business day onsite service, 1TB HDD [I added my own SSD] and premium US based support, for $1,500... which was an ok price [I could have gotten cheaper, but wasn't worth it based on other factors/considerations]

Why that CPU? I have a 10 yr old quad-core, hyper-threaded CPU, which runs most everything I want/need other than video/photo related. I tried OBS with a 5yr old quad-core CPU and it was overwhelmed. a 2yr old Xeon 6c/12thread CPU barely breaks a sweat... so for me, and what I'm looking to do, a 6core/12 thread CPU would likely give me 5+ years of life. And Intel just really struggling in recent years, so I'd prefer AMD CPU but hard to find in business class Tier 1 Towers [I avoid consumer class gear].

 

[goodmallard]

A used computer for $500 what does what you want. sure
$500 for a new computer with headroom... no, not really
See my other posts ... short version is I was looking at AMD Ryzen 9 3900X as having 4+ years headroom, and power enough for video editing as well. As for GPU, nVidia GTX 1650 Super or better recommended for recent (Turing vs Pascal) NVENC support. Then at least 16BG RAM and for performance a NVME SSD. For reference, I recently got a business class new tower, with 5yr next business day onsite service, 1TB HDD [I added my own SSD] and premium US based support, for $1,500... which was an ok price [I could have gotten cheaper, but wasn't worth it based on other factors/considerations]

Why that CPU? I have a 10 yr old quad-core, hyper-threaded CPU, which runs most everything I want/need other than video/photo related. I tried OBS with a 5yr old quad-core CPU and it was overwhelmed. a 2yr old Xeon 6c/12thread CPU barely breaks a sweat... so for me, and what I'm looking to do, a 6core/12 thread CPU would likely give me 5+ years of life. And Intel just really struggling in recent years, so I'd prefer AMD CPU but hard to find in business class Tier 1 Towers [I avoid consumer class gear].

Thanks a lot for your response!

The system I had been looking to cobble together looks a bit like...

Ryzen 5 1600 (there is a one available for arounf $100 new in my country)
8/16GB RAM (depending on final price, can always upgrade easily)
Probably a 1650 Super (I thought this would be more than ample but maybe not!)
SSD

Granted this may come in a little over $500 although I'm happy to buy used components here and there.

I honestly thought this would be overkiill- remember I'm doing absolutely no gaming at all- very interested to hear that it is not! I'm not looking for bleeding edge performance, but just something that will make my video recording more comfortable, at the moment it is painful with all my requirements! Still, maybe I will be able to play the new flight sim after all!

Thanks

Goodmallard
Thanks everyone!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Recognize that video encoding can be VERY demanding, as much as gaming.
Then you have CPU impact of USB webcam decoding, and you mentioned green screen - all of which is CPU dependent/impactful
What gets challenging is gaming and video encoding on same PC (hence upper end specs for such systems). In specific scenarios, with the right optimizations, you can get away with a lower CPU and decent GPU. Considering that AMD is going to be releasing their 4th Ryzen (Zen 3) desktop CPU soon (next couple of weeks), getting a 3 generation older CPU might make sense is budget really tight, but if you want this system to last for a while, I'd certainly recommend something newer. Unfortunately, I haven't played with chroma keying, so can't comment on just how much CPU you might need for such. Also, if you plan to do an video editing, again significantly CPU dependent.
My caution is that you can get a faster system than what you have, and be pleased, then start trying to do more, and quickly get frustrated, so beware setting you target too low. I wish I could give you more specifics Good Luck