Question / Help What to look for in buying a new system?

EaglesWings

New Member
Hi, I'm fairly new to OBS. Looking to buy a new notebook pc. I read the system requirements but I'm not sure of what I'm reading. How do I go about making sure that I purchase a notebook pc that is strong enough to handle OBS and streaming Facebook live for about an hour and a half once or twice a week? What do I look for when I am reviewing PCs online? Thanks.

I'm looking to purchase a Windows notebook pc with Intel branded processor.
  • DirectX 10.1 compatible GPU - what's this?
  • Hardware Encoders - what is this?
  • NVIDIA NVENC - what is this?
  • Intel Quick Sync Video (QSV) - what is this?
  • AMD Advanced Media Framework (AMF) - what is this?
More importantly, how do I know that a notebook pc I'm looking at meets the above requirements? Where do I look to verify this information? Thanks.
 

koala

Active Member
Every notebook that runs Windows 10, was manufactured 2019 or 2018, and has a Intel Core-i processor meets the requirements for OBS. Cheaper Notebooks with no Core-I processor may or may not be powerful enough. It depends.
Nvenc, Quicksync and AMF are hardware encoders built in the respective GPUs from Nvidia, Intel and AMD. An encoder compresses the video. They are not a requirement, but optional. But every current Notebook has one of these GPUs, thus one of these hardware encoders. For machines with less performance than desktop PCs, such as notebooks, hardware encoders help tremendously with creating smooth video, so they are a de-facto requirement for less powerful machines.

You did not write how much money you want to invest, but with a notebook of about 500 Euro and above you should be safe. Of course, the more powerful (and expensive) the machine is, the more easy will it be to create videos of good quality.

You also did not write what you intend to stream. It's very important to take the thing you want to stream into account as well. The machine must be able to run both of them, and OBS is a very resource-intensive application.
If you have the money, I'd recommend a notebook with a Intel Core-I CPU and a Nvidia GPU. OBS is able to use the least system resources by using the nvenc encoder of that GPU, so most of the system's resources are left to the thing you intend to stream.
 

TechKnow

New Member
Every notebook that runs Windows 10, was manufactured 2019 or 2018, and has a Intel Core-i processor meets the requirements for OBS. Cheaper Notebooks with no Core-I processor may or may not be powerful enough. It depends.
Nvenc, Quicksync and AMF are hardware encoders built in the respective GPUs from Nvidia, Intel and AMD. An encoder compresses the video. They are not a requirement, but optional. But every current Notebook has one of these GPUs, thus one of these hardware encoders. For machines with less performance than desktop PCs, such as notebooks, hardware encoders help tremendously with creating smooth video, so they are a de-facto requirement for less powerful machines.

You did not write how much money you want to invest, but with a notebook of about 500 Euro and above you should be safe. Of course, the more powerful (and expensive) the machine is, the more easy will it be to create videos of good quality.

You also did not write what you intend to stream. It's very important to take the thing you want to stream into account as well. The machine must be able to run both of them, and OBS is a very resource-intensive application.
If you have the money, I'd recommend a notebook with a Intel Core-I CPU and a Nvidia GPU. OBS is able to use the least system resources by using the nvenc encoder of that GPU, so most of the system's resources are left to the thing you intend to stream.

I was able to run OBS on a refurbished 2011 laptop. and it works really good with the Intel HD graphics, 8gb ram, and an Intel core I5 2.60 GHz .
 

EaglesWings

New Member
Every notebook that runs Windows 10, was manufactured 2019 or 2018, and has a Intel Core-i processor meets the requirements for OBS. Cheaper Notebooks with no Core-I processor may or may not be powerful enough. It depends.
Nvenc, Quicksync and AMF are hardware encoders built in the respective GPUs from Nvidia, Intel and AMD. An encoder compresses the video. They are not a requirement, but optional. But every current Notebook has one of these GPUs, thus one of these hardware encoders. For machines with less performance than desktop PCs, such as notebooks, hardware encoders help tremendously with creating smooth video, so they are a de-facto requirement for less powerful machines.

You did not write how much money you want to invest, but with a notebook of about 500 Euro and above you should be safe. Of course, the more powerful (and expensive) the machine is, the more easy will it be to create videos of good quality.

You also did not write what you intend to stream. It's very important to take the thing you want to stream into account as well. The machine must be able to run both of them, and OBS is a very resource-intensive application.
If you have the money, I'd recommend a notebook with a Intel Core-I CPU and a Nvidia GPU. OBS is able to use the least system resources by using the nvenc encoder of that GPU, so most of the system's resources are left to the thing you intend to stream.

So, any laptop with core i3, i5 or i7 would do? I'm trying to stay around $500 US dollars which would get me an i5 or so. We are simply streaming our church service a couple of times a week for about 2 hours or so. Would something like this suffice: http://weeklyad.staples.com/Staples...store/2278854/category/5227447/parent/5227337 ?
 
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