Mini PC for OBS to install in Pelican case.
- Thread starter m1ckDELTA
- Start date
Lawrence_SoCal
Active Member
All USB ports are backwards compatible, so what are you actually asking for? Even the latest USB-C ports can usually handle most ancient USB1 & 2 devices with simple cheap physical adapter to convert connection from USB-A cable from old device).
Your description brings an interesting consideration, but needs more details than provided to a meaningful recommendation:
- Issue: depending on devices and chipset, you can overwhelm (overload) a USB Root Hub (search in this forum for "USB RootHub" and/or M$' USBView tool for more info on this issue)
- Implication - number of ports is a too simplistic question.
You need to determine what devices will be using those ports (5 USB cameras? or 2 for keyboard/mouse, 3 for cameras. or ??? etc. And what resolution from camera will impact bandwidth implications. And then evaluate driver maturity (some vendors are junk and cause problems when adding multiple cameras from same vendor), and then motherboard chipset and number of USB Root Hubs, and ability to spread traffic over those hubs to avoid overload, *if* that applies to your situation... it does get technical. Audio interfaces tend to use a lot less bandwidth (small fraction) than video.
However, beware differing data paths for audio and video, due to manual sync considerations.
And then, depending on setup, a USB4 or Thunderbolt port into a hub (which can be small, may provide the ports (and at ~40Gb/s, still not get overloaded). Considering portability is a primary consideration, I'd look at a combination small keyboard/mouse that uses a single USB port. Or are you planning to control OBS via something like a streamdeck?
Depending on your setup, consider how you will control things. I started single monitor, but with multi-camera setup (and using PTZ ) I needed a 2nd monitor. With DisplayPort MST I can drive 2 monitors (or more) with single DP cable coming out of PC.
Streaming over WiFi will be a crap-shoot as best, and unless wireless network engineer level knowledge, Murphy's Law says likelihood of network glitches over WiFi goes up with importance of event. There are ways to avoid a problem, and use WiFi, but not using consumer stuff.
A GPU for encode offload helps lower CPU requirements. And there is a base graphics processing requirement for OBS. But you don't need a dedicated physical GPU. Depending on other workload/tasks, especially any Video inputs to be handled, an integrated GPU or even Intel QuickSync may be plenty. depends ...
So, to get a real answer and by that I mean not a flippant response that over-specs a system to be safe, or low-balls making unstated assumptions, you'll need a lot more info than what you've posted to get an answer that isn't overkill, or possibly under-powered. Also, be sure to indicate how long you expect to use the system (CPU) before upgrading? Is something like next-business-day onsite support important (not cheap, but available).
There are numerous 1Litre (mini/small form factor SFF) and NUCs that would most likely suffice. Depends on other requirements as I mentioned, and budget/expectations on being able to get more sophisticated down the road with same system (for example, adding color correction filters/processing, audio filters, etc). It is easy to start adding effects which greatly increase computational workload for real-time video encoding
Your description brings an interesting consideration, but needs more details than provided to a meaningful recommendation:
- Issue: depending on devices and chipset, you can overwhelm (overload) a USB Root Hub (search in this forum for "USB RootHub" and/or M$' USBView tool for more info on this issue)
- Implication - number of ports is a too simplistic question.
You need to determine what devices will be using those ports (5 USB cameras? or 2 for keyboard/mouse, 3 for cameras. or ??? etc. And what resolution from camera will impact bandwidth implications. And then evaluate driver maturity (some vendors are junk and cause problems when adding multiple cameras from same vendor), and then motherboard chipset and number of USB Root Hubs, and ability to spread traffic over those hubs to avoid overload, *if* that applies to your situation... it does get technical. Audio interfaces tend to use a lot less bandwidth (small fraction) than video.
However, beware differing data paths for audio and video, due to manual sync considerations.
And then, depending on setup, a USB4 or Thunderbolt port into a hub (which can be small, may provide the ports (and at ~40Gb/s, still not get overloaded). Considering portability is a primary consideration, I'd look at a combination small keyboard/mouse that uses a single USB port. Or are you planning to control OBS via something like a streamdeck?
Depending on your setup, consider how you will control things. I started single monitor, but with multi-camera setup (and using PTZ ) I needed a 2nd monitor. With DisplayPort MST I can drive 2 monitors (or more) with single DP cable coming out of PC.
Streaming over WiFi will be a crap-shoot as best, and unless wireless network engineer level knowledge, Murphy's Law says likelihood of network glitches over WiFi goes up with importance of event. There are ways to avoid a problem, and use WiFi, but not using consumer stuff.
A GPU for encode offload helps lower CPU requirements. And there is a base graphics processing requirement for OBS. But you don't need a dedicated physical GPU. Depending on other workload/tasks, especially any Video inputs to be handled, an integrated GPU or even Intel QuickSync may be plenty. depends ...
So, to get a real answer and by that I mean not a flippant response that over-specs a system to be safe, or low-balls making unstated assumptions, you'll need a lot more info than what you've posted to get an answer that isn't overkill, or possibly under-powered. Also, be sure to indicate how long you expect to use the system (CPU) before upgrading? Is something like next-business-day onsite support important (not cheap, but available).
There are numerous 1Litre (mini/small form factor SFF) and NUCs that would most likely suffice. Depends on other requirements as I mentioned, and budget/expectations on being able to get more sophisticated down the road with same system (for example, adding color correction filters/processing, audio filters, etc). It is easy to start adding effects which greatly increase computational workload for real-time video encoding
Lawrence_SoCal
Active Member
Oh, and Pelican case sizes vary greatly from those too small to hold my phone, to those a small person can fit into. So a little more specifics on PC case size would help. The typical issue is real small form factor PCs is the lack of a dedicated full-size GPU slot. *IF* you needed GPU encode/decode offload, the common recommendation is nVidia's Turing NVENC (on GTX 1650 Super or higher/newer). The issue as I recall (been a while) is that there are half-height GTX 1650 (using older, not Turing, GPU chipset). There are custom options, being being niche, be prepared for a decent boutique price premium to get real small case size, and still have a Turing or newer Ampere based GPU.
So an important thing to determining size of PC case, is whether you need such a discrete GPU or not
So an important thing to determining size of PC case, is whether you need such a discrete GPU or not
spurlockconcept
New Member
This is my first post here, new forum user so I apologize in advance if I posted anything I'm not supposed to.
I picked up ViewSonic VOT 133 micro PC awhile back for about 30 Dollars on eBay just to tinker with. I was surprised what it was capable of when I played with it, I added a 10 dollar 100 gig Solid state drive a fresh load of win 10 and was up and going. its not a fast PC, but I used it for downloading torrents for awhile and it held up against another Intel I5 core 3.2 Ghz system I also had doing the same tasks. I even loaded ANDROID x86 onto it and that ran amazingly with the systems 4 Gigs of RAM. If you wanted something that had a lot of USB ports, 4 USB 2.0 and 2 USB3.0, an HDMI and a DVI cable connection, WI FI and network cable audio out etc.. you might want to look for one on eBay, I still see them for about 35 bucks. especially if you wanted a low budget PC you could fit in a SMALL SPACE. this thing is only 7 1/2 inches long 5 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch thick.. of course the WI FI antenna sticks out and the wires and cables are going to add a bit to your size, but it would totally fit into something small for your purpose. Its about the same size as an old school VHS video cassette (yea.. I'm old lol). if I can use it for a DVR as well as a host of other things at the same time then it should work for media streaming for you. And for about 45 bucks for a "desktop PC" that small.. you cant really beat it when compared to buying a newer "NUC/USFF/Raspberry Pi" type micro PC.. look it up, it might be just the thing that you need..
ViewSonic website --> https://www.viewsonic.com/la/index.php/vot133-1-183539e54667dddc02d46f94bc0d43c5.html#specs
i got mine on eBay as i said, and parts (RAM/SSD/HDD's) are super cheap.
I picked up ViewSonic VOT 133 micro PC awhile back for about 30 Dollars on eBay just to tinker with. I was surprised what it was capable of when I played with it, I added a 10 dollar 100 gig Solid state drive a fresh load of win 10 and was up and going. its not a fast PC, but I used it for downloading torrents for awhile and it held up against another Intel I5 core 3.2 Ghz system I also had doing the same tasks. I even loaded ANDROID x86 onto it and that ran amazingly with the systems 4 Gigs of RAM. If you wanted something that had a lot of USB ports, 4 USB 2.0 and 2 USB3.0, an HDMI and a DVI cable connection, WI FI and network cable audio out etc.. you might want to look for one on eBay, I still see them for about 35 bucks. especially if you wanted a low budget PC you could fit in a SMALL SPACE. this thing is only 7 1/2 inches long 5 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch thick.. of course the WI FI antenna sticks out and the wires and cables are going to add a bit to your size, but it would totally fit into something small for your purpose. Its about the same size as an old school VHS video cassette (yea.. I'm old lol). if I can use it for a DVR as well as a host of other things at the same time then it should work for media streaming for you. And for about 45 bucks for a "desktop PC" that small.. you cant really beat it when compared to buying a newer "NUC/USFF/Raspberry Pi" type micro PC.. look it up, it might be just the thing that you need..
ViewSonic website --> https://www.viewsonic.com/la/index.php/vot133-1-183539e54667dddc02d46f94bc0d43c5.html#specs
i got mine on eBay as i said, and parts (RAM/SSD/HDD's) are super cheap.