System Configuration Recommendation

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ttatatg

New Member
Hey, all,

Appreciate your feedback/thoughts on a recommendation for a Windows desktop for a setup with QTY 3 Canon CR-N300 cameras and two wireless Mics. We’re not using that many scenes and were posting the finished video via Zoom. We’ve used an HP EliteBook with an i5 and 16GB of RAM and the results were okay but we think it will be best to change to a desktop with better specs. I’ve been considering the Gaming PCs that are available at MicroCenter. Please let me know if you are familiar with those and have a particular recommendation.
 
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Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
HP EliteBook with an i5 and 16GB of RAM
Click to expand...
doesn't really tell us anything, as there have been over 10+ (15?) years of i5's

So, there is paying attention to hardware resource utilization (sort of liking not driving a car blind-folded). *if* you were getting CPU constrained, a GPU to do encoding offload can help (NVENC tends to work better, at this point for H.264. What will work for AV1 will take time to mature before being able to make generalizations).
You don't mention what resolution, color depth, etc you plan to work at. Zoom highly compresses video, so not something one typically uses for high-fidelity video. So, standard (SDR) color at 1080p30? I have a i7-10700 and it is capable of 4K real-time video compositing. Presuming you are sticking with 1080p30 for now. an i7-8xxx or newer should be ok WITH careful attention to background processes, OS and OBS studio optimizations, etc. With less technical sophistication in various optimizations and resource utilization monitoring, the more resources you'll want to be have a safe 'buffer'. Though, as always, it depends.... It is entirely possible to get carried away with chromakeying, poorly written and/or CPU demanding plugins, CPU intensive audio filters/effects, etc and bring a latest gen workstation to its knees

I won't bother looking up the cameras, as they usually have options in terms of connectivity (HDMI, SDI, USB, NDI, etc) and each has its own Pro's & Con's (incl hardware resource impact). Typically cameras send compressed video which the PC will need to uncompress, and then composite (possibly with overlays) in OBS Studio, then re-encode for Stream/Recording?

Then, it depends on budget, expected system lifetime and more. For example, I bought a business class pc, expecting 5 years of life (I get much longer from non-gaming personal systems) and being able to handle likely 4K video upgrade within that timeframe. Assuming a desire for a long system lifecycle and not gaming oriented, I avoid consumer gear (models) due to much lower build quality [then again, I know how and where to get good discounts on business class PC and workstations].
 
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