Question / Help What laptop is the best for how I'm using OBS?

[ckbcowboy]

Here's my setup:

Right now, I'm using OBS with a 2012 i7 MacBook Pro, with three Logitech C922x webcams and an RME Fireface UFX audio interface. I'm live-streaming to Facebook @ 720p while simultaneously recording to disk @ 1080p, so I can make minor edits with something like FCP and upload to YouTube, once the stream is done. I'm also using DiscoBrick PRO via Syphon to get some interesting audio-driven visualizations into the video, and I'm using Loopback to get the RME audio into OBS, since nobody can figure out how to get audio from an RME device into OBS without a third-party tool. Switching between OBS scenes is done via a USB numpad.

Here's a good example of one of my videos: https://youtu.be/XZPTSlef2Rk

Here's my problem:

If you watch the video, you'll see that the audio and video don't really stay in sync. I want to fix this, as it's a recurring problem and drives me crazy. And I'm sure it's laggy because of the amount of CPU that OBS + DiscoBrick PRO use, not to mention the three USB webcams probably need a bunch of CPU, and this is, of course, all running on a 6-year old laptop.

Solution?

If I want to replace my laptop (yes, with another laptop, I need this system to be portable), what should I be looking for? I want as many USB buses as possible (at least 3, via external thunderbolt 3 dock is ok) so the webcams won't conflict with one another. Ideally, with a GPU that can offload some of the video encoding to free up CPU.

I'm open to Windows or MacOS. I just need something that's rock-solid for streaming. Are there any specific laptops, brands or hardware components that I should be looking out for?

Thanks,
Cowboy

 

[TryHD]

if it has to be notebook Schenker XMG ULTRA 17-L17xdh or Dell Alienware Area-51m DTR or Clevo P750TM1
But for that money you could buy a notebook and a desktop with more powerfull hardware than any of the notebooks above and would still have something left for vacation, but it is your money, if you want to waste it for a notebook go ahead and do it.

 

[ckbcowboy]

if it has to be notebook Schenker XMG ULTRA 17-L17xdh or Dell Alienware Area-51m DTR or Clevo P750TM1
But for that money you could buy a notebook and a desktop with more powerfull hardware than any of the notebooks above and would still have something left for vacation, but it is your money, if you want to waste it for a notebook go ahead and do it.

Why those specific laptops? What are their advantages?

 

[TryHD]

they have enough power to handle the task you wrote about, enough gpu power for rendering the canvas with 3 webcams and a fast enough cpu to handle encoding too, but like i said i wouldn't recommend a notebook at all. If you want to be portable you could also use a desktop in mini itx form factor. They are smaller than a shoe box but still give you full power.
Here to bring the size in perspective
Dan A4 sfx v3

Ghost S1

 

[ckbcowboy]

Please forgive my naivete, but those laptops all seem like they'd be super overkill for what I'm trying to do. Do I really need that much power to encode and stream? What about those laptops, other than tons of raw power, makes the most difference in terms of streaming? For example, how about a generally less powerful laptop that just has a good video card?

 

[Narcogen]

Laptops with good video cards have a built-in limitation that they cannot perform display capture unless running on the integrated GPU. All other things being equal, for the same specs or price, a desktop will provide better quality and performance with fewer compromises than a laptop.

That said, if you're using FCP this should probably be in the Mac forum? And if you're streaming at 720p, maximum performance is probably not really an issue. You're assuming your sync issue is performance-related, which might be right, but it could be something else, and it wouldn't be great to shell out for a big upgrade and then find out you have the same issue.

Also, don't do any acquisition that depends on Syphon working into the future, because currently it is broken on Mojave and there's no guarantee it will ever work again.