Question / Help Use a server to stream?

[Dillon Kelly]

so ive been toying with the idea of using an inhome server for a few things. Mainly to use as a dedicated device to stream to twitch. i have a gaming pc and capture card. my capture card requires usb 3.0 so id have to add a usb 3.0 pcie card. i also have a spare hdd/ssd and videocard. I would also be using it for network storage/media.

I guess my main question, Will OBS work from both cores? will i get better performance from 2x e5649 vs 1x E5-2660 Whats the max number of cores OBS will utilize?


the two machines ive been toying with are as follows.
the "easy" option:
tower prebuilt server.

or

rackmount with upgraded CPUs
example
Also some interesting cable work to power the usb 3.0 power ( they all seem to need molex or similar connectors for power)



Thanks in advance.

 

[sam686]

tiny rackmounts... all that tiny fans will make it very loud. Desktop tower or anything with large case can fit bigger and quieter fans.

As for CPU speed, you can look at benchmark websites.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ (ctrl + F to find in page after opening a list of high end cpu)

single E5649 vs 2x E5649... many users was overclocking a single E5649 cpu systems.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E5649-vs-1st-CPU--Intel-Xeon-E5649/m15253vsm4385

e5-2660 vs 2x e5629
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2660-0-vs-1st-CPU--Intel-Xeon-E5649/m9497vsm4385
Newer CPU like Ryzen 5 1600X is better, more energy efficient, and might be cheaper then Xeon.

USB PCI-E cards:
USB need 5 volts. PCI-E only have 12 volts and 3.3 volts. USB PCI-E card can only get 5 volts using molex connector, or for more expensive PCI-E USB cards, converting it from 12 volts that avoids the need for extra connector.

 

[Dillon Kelly]

That really doesn't answer my question. I don't care about the sound. And I'm not asking you for advice on other CPUs.

Does obs benefit from multi-CPUs or not? Is there a limit on number of cores it will benefit from?

Thanks.

 

[sam686]

Does obs benefit from multi-CPUs or not? Is there a limit on number of cores it will benefit from?

There is 2 things. Number of cores within a single CPU, and number of CPU. x264 encoder can benefit from dual CPU, if the operating system allows dual CPU at all. That means needing to use windows 7 pro or ultimate, windows 8 pro, or free linux. Not sure about windows 10 yet.

Edit: Going to use Linux? check if your usb video device is compatible with linux. Some of them is not compatble or not yet compatible.

There is a limit on a max number of threads x264 could cleanly handle for live streams. This can be set with threads=16 or lower.

 

[Dillon Kelly]

so it can only benefit from a total of 16 threads? so my best bet would be to get the highest ghz/thread UP TO 16 threads, correct?