Help Building an OBS box

[Producer John]

Working on building a PC to use OBS for our live stream. I'm paying for it myself, so have a scissored shoestring budget. Could anyone reply, or point me to a thread (haven't found one yet) that lists decent OBS equipment?

So far I have a 3.2Ghz i5 CPU, 8gb ram, & Win10 on SSD. Using an old(ish) Optiplex 390 SFF machine. My thought is to transplant it to an ATX case so I can add a higher wattage PSU & Gfx card. This is where I stalled.

What variables should I use to search for a compatible card? Power isn't an issue; since I am switching PSUs I can cover whatever the card requires.
$$$ is my main concern at this stage; I'm a poor boy. I realize it needs to be as beefy as I can afford, but not knowing what to look for is hindering me.

Any guidance available?

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

If you are prioritizing current dollar spend, vs value/longevity, I probably can't help all that much
There have been a number of recent discussions on this exact topic.. search a little harder (I've commented on a number of the threads)

As for GPU, a Turing based NVENC, means a GTX 1650 Super or better (rumor of a newly released 1650 that might use the newer GPU chip... you'd have to check for yourself). Can older GPU work, yes. But for new GPU, hard to beat value with 1650 Super (assuming you don't need anything else specific out of GPU, like video editing, gaming, etc). IAssuming you want as sohpisticated a stream as you can manage with your hardware, that means trying to minimize CPU load (avoid glitches &/or crashes), you want to offload to GPU that which you can, which means (usually) an nVidea GTX card with NVENC that OBS supports [are there other approaches, yes].

I tried streaming with a i5-6300HQ @ 2.3GHz (4c/4t) [Fall 2015], 8GB RAM, SATA SSD Win 10 Home, and nVidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics card
- and failed miserably. Now, do I think with what I've learned since then (and I'm very knowledgeable about PCs, Operating Systems, etc) that I could get OBS to run on that system now... probably... but only by being very careful with what I did... and that wasn't worth it to me (way too limiting, would have meant a more powerful PC to do video editing and re-encoding on another system to enable playing pre-recorded videos from various phones/tablets/computers)

For older hardware, trying to do the very demanding task of video encoding for streaming, you'll need to learn how to minimize your OBS settings (and expectations) so as to not over-burden your hardware with the not uncommon consequence of a crash/glitch/choppy/etc stream. ymmv
- This means keeping base canvas, output resolution the same, no re-scaling. Starting with NOT turning on any sound effects like noise suppression/compression, minimize plug-ins, etc ... until you learn to monitor hardware (Task Mgr (Perf tab) and/or Resource monitor and then slowly turn up your settings while keeping things stable

 

[Producer John]

Oh wow, alot to it. So I'll be earning my non-existent paycheck. Thanks much for your help and insight. The 1650S is one I have been leaning toward. Will have to sell my 5th kidney for it, but ya know...

 

[Producer John]

What about AMDs Rx 580 specifically... Work as good for less?

 

[Producer John]

Nvm. Answered my own Q...

you'll want an nVidia GPU, preferably a Turing based unit. Meaning a GTX 1660, or RTX 20-series. Use NVENC (new) as your encoder to keep all the data on the GPU during compositing, even if you are not streaming with it. NEVER use an AMD GPU at this point for any production system. AMF is horrendous, and does not support the zero-copy tech that modern NVENC allows.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Correct on Turing or newer for latest NVENC encoder support. Then again, that was before RTX 3xxx reelase, so not sure if yet another update/version.
When FerretBomb wrote that (I suspect) the 1650 Super hadn't been released (which does also have the Turing chip, hence my comment about it, and why you will often find reference to recommending it, or higher, with OBS).

 

[FerretBomb]

When FerretBomb wrote that (I suspect) the 1650 Super hadn't been released (which does also have the Turing chip, hence my comment about it, and why you will often find reference to recommending it, or higher, with OBS).

Can't recall, but I'd been not bothering to mention the 1650 Super as people kept buying the non-Super, or the Ti which have the prior, Pascal/Volta NVENC core instead of the Turing core.

The 30-series Ampere core is essentially the same as the 20-series Turing core. There is no quality/performance gain past the 20-series for streaming. But as Turing punches on-par with x264 Slow, that isn't really a problem.

 

[Producer John]

With the current pricing of cards, I think I need to shelve the project for a lil bit. $200+ for a used 1650? Can't see buying that.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Again be careful. a 1650 is not the same as 1650 Super. And I'm seeing new 1650 Supers for around $180... and eBay sold cards showing in the $130-150 range (though that would take patience... I do see soonest ending cards to be = new card pricing)

 

[Producer John]

So if I understand correctly, I need a 1650 SUPER.... So glad I opened this thread. I'd be screwed otherwise. An update: I have most of the components, minus the aforementioned card. And the search continues...

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

You don't *need* a GTX 1650 Super, it is just that a GTX 1650 Super basically gets you the most recent (ie fastest) NVENC Turing chip, so for NVENC usage, this card will last longer/be better than prior generation cards (ie 1650 or older). So 1650 Super is a good value and is recommended. There are older GTX GPUs, with older NVENC sub-systems, that will work.. The question comes down to budget availability/value of money. For some people, the extra $80-100 extra for a GTX 1650 Super might be hard to justify, and not all that necessary. For others, that isn't a large amount, and that person prefers something that will work faster/better, and have a higher chance of lasting longer.... ymmv. FYI - I did just see a Newegg sale on a new GTX 1650 Super for $180 in last couple of days, iirc.. whether that mfg any good, I can't say