PC laptop purchase help for OBS

T

twindux

Member
I've been livestreaming our church services via OBS on my old Mac laptop (Mid 2015 i7/2.8 GHz, 16gb ram, AMD Radeon R9 M370X GPU, 2gb vram)...Been fairly successful, but I want the church to buy a laptop to run the livestream so I can have my Mac back as it looks as if we'll be streaming for much longer than initially expected. I mean, it's already been a good long stretch (6 months), but looks like it'll be a lot longer still.

So....here's what I've been able to do, and would like to do at least this, or more.
  1. Average 20 OBS scenes per service
    • 2 cameras—PTZ Optics via HDMI/Elegato capture to USB, and iPhone via OBS iPhone plugin to USB--but may have more cameras in future.
    • Multiple static graphics/overlays
    • multiple media sources (mp4 videos)
  2. Sound in from house sound system (line out) via USB audio device
  3. Streaming at 1080p 60fps on YouTube Live
  4. wired gigabit ethernet to LAN to Internet
  5. Manage the PTZ Optics camera via this computer (instead of using a separate computer or device)
  6. Use multiview successfully, potentially on external screen
Problems with the Mac:
  • Unable to consistently use preview mode or Multiview without rendering lag.
  • Also unable to use the PTZ Optics app on my OBS computer to change camera moves...I use another old Mac for that.
Have never bought a PC so have absolutely no idea what to consider to optimize OBS. I assume a high powered i7 or i9 CPU, plus solid GPU...but what are the best/cost effective GPU options on PCs for OBS? (In Mac land, we don't have a lot of GPU options!)

Would like to stick to a laptop as we occasionally livestream from another building.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
 
InteractiveDNA

InteractiveDNA

Member
Any laptop with Intel will do the job that cost around $500 and up. I do my streams on a old Intel laptop and I never had a problem. Stay away from AMD Processors.

YT InteractiveDNA for more.
 
V

VSW

New Member
Well, we were in the same situation, though using two iPhones and audio from our sound system with a digital interface. We moved from a 2017 13" MacBook Pro to a 2019 XPS 15 laptop with an i7 (9th generation) intel chip, 16GB RAM, 256 GB SSD and Nvidia 1650 (though I wished it had the 1660 or higher as they used the updated NVENC hardware encoding). The 15 screen on the XPS is great (it is a 1080p screen, not the ultra high def model). The results have been very good so far for our live-streaming, using about 15 to 20% of the CPU with x.264 encoding. We currently stream at 1080p at 30fps. Our bitrate is set to 8000. As no RJ45 port on the laptop, so connect the internet through TB3 with an hub. The laptop is quiet, though the fans do come on from time to time, but they are quiet. We don't use the NVENC as we are not playing any games, just streaming. Great purchase so far.

We are in the process of moving to everything over ethernet (PoE) via NDI with 2 to 3 PTZ cameras (we are looking at Panasonics AE-40HN) and audio via the dante system so that we just have one cable to plug into our laptop. I am looking forward to it. I tried out the laptop with one PTZ camera with NDI, and there is a little video lag, but otherwise just fine.

Hope that assists.
 
T

twindux

Member
VSW said:
Well, we were in the same situation, though using two iPhones and audio from our sound system with a digital interface. We moved from a 2017 13" MacBook Pro to a 2019 XPS 15 laptop with an i7 (9th generation) intel chip, 16GB RAM, 256 GB SSD and Nvidia 1650 (though I wished it had the 1660 or higher as they used the updated NVENC hardware encoding). The 15 screen on the XPS is great (it is a 1080p screen, not the ultra high def model). The results have been very good so far for our live-streaming, using about 15 to 20% of the CPU with x.264 encoding. We currently stream at 1080p at 30fps. Our bitrate is set to 8000. As no RJ45 port on the laptop, so connect the internet through TB3 with an hub. The laptop is quiet, though the fans do come on from time to time, but they are quiet. We don't use the NVENC as we are not playing any games, just streaming. Great purchase so far.

We are in the process of moving to everything over ethernet (PoE) via NDI with 2 to 3 PTZ cameras (we are looking at Panasonics AE-40HN) and audio via the dante system so that we just have one cable to plug into our laptop. I am looking forward to it. I tried out the laptop with one PTZ camera with NDI, and there is a little video lag, but otherwise just fine.

Hope that assists.
Click to expand...

thanks so much!

ya, I"ll likely go with a TB hub...should be able to get everything I need right now directly into the computer from that. May work with some an NDI or other camera in the future. Appreciate the intel on the Nvidia.


Appreciate the input.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top