PSU - Two PC's - 1 Case

[benjamin.annas]

Hi Everyone,

I'm half way through an update. I decided to go with the enthu 719 case and I absolutely love it. It's a dream to build in and when the build is finally finished I think it will be an epic setup.

Currently I run a two PC twitch stream and although I currently stream from a laptop, the plan is to build two pc's into the one case. I'm not worried too much about specs as such for the two machines, happy to build it etc but the one thing that I'm stuck on is the PSU.

Phantex does a 1200w PSU that they recommend for that case that has outputs to power two motherboards which is currently in stock at OC. My question is, is 1200w enough to power two machines with the latest generation of graphics cards?!

My plan, is to run a 3080 on my main machine with a 5900x (still looking for a 3080 at this moment in time but that's the goal). The second pc (the streaming PC) will either run a 3060 or a 3070 with an i7. depending on what I can get my hands on.

I'm thinking that I would likely need to get a stronger PSU to power both setups. potentially a 1500w / 1600w? If so, does anyone rate any of the 3rd party boards that splits the power supply to two motherboards? Annoyingly, I can only fit one PSU in the case so splitting the machines isn't an option and if i did I might as well put them in different cases which defeats the point. (unless something things I'm wrong?)

 

[Defy Belief]

The 5900x would do that fine on its own with the 3080 I imagine?

No point in having a 3060/3070 for a 'streaming' pc as the cpu does all the encoding I imagine? Something i've never done but sounds like you're just going to be wasting an obscene amount of money, just buy a 5950x if you're that worried.

Seems like you're just creating a problem to use a feature that you don't really need.

 

[benjamin.annas]

The 5900x would do that fine on its own with the 3080 I imagine?

No point in having a 3060/3070 for a 'streaming' pc as the cpu does all the encoding I imagine? Something i've never done but sounds like you're just going to be wasting an obscene amount of money, just buy a 5950x if you're that worried.

Seems like you're just creating a problem to use a feature that you don't really need.

Thanks for the reply, Yes it would stream fine from 1 pc, but I like having a 2 PC setup for multiple reasons. Firstly, I run a lot of tournaments and at times I end up with 20 live streams playing on my machine, switching between them all and displaying the action throughout a tournament. Having two pc's means that if my OBS (or vmix) crashes, I don't loose the stream, I have a failover that takes over while i sort the issue.

Secondly. I like running a two pc stream. Having a separate pc while streaming means I can do things while in game without having to alt tab or change where my keyboard and mouse are aimed at. It's not an issue im creating, I'm trying to improve upon my setup and thats how I want to do it rather than having two machines in two different cases.

 

[Defy Belief]

Thanks for the reply, Yes it would stream fine from 1 pc, but I like having a 2 PC setup for multiple reasons. Firstly, I run a lot of tournaments and at times I end up with 20 live streams playing on my machine, switching between them all and displaying the action throughout a tournament. Having two pc's means that if my OBS (or vmix) crashes, I don't loose the stream, I have a failover that takes over while i sort the issue.

Secondly. I like running a two pc stream. Having a separate pc while streaming means I can do things while in game without having to alt tab or change where my keyboard and mouse are aimed at. It's not an issue im creating, I'm trying to improve upon my setup and thats how I want to do it rather than having two machines in two different cases.

Fair enough But I'd have thought for the 'streaming' pc then, you'd just need a decent CPU with an onboard gpu/small dedicated card? I can't see any benefit to running a 3xxx series card with that, which would then bring the power capacity down, meaning the 1200w would be sufficient?

 

[benjamin.annas]

OBS and vMix (the two software's I use for streaming) actually require a fair amount of GPU power as well if your doing something more than just a standard screen cap / input capture card. Having a dedicated GPU takes a massive strain off of the CPU and nvenc is a god send when it comes to encoding / streaming.

Given the price point of the 30 series GPU's why wouldn't I want a 3060 / 3070 in the machine? Best bang for buck and if i ever decide to stop streaming they will hold their value / can be used as a second gaming machine if my wife ever wanted to play something.

So arguably I could run an onboard GPU / small dedicated one but If I was to use a 30 series card, what sized PSU does everyone here think I should get?

 

[feck199]

For that goal the 3060 is a much safer bet due to its power draw compared to a 3070.

Working on the idea of 370+150 and 170+150. I’ve not looked closely at all the power draw tbh but I think I’m in the ballpark.

With a rough guess would it be around 800-1000w total for the two systems before any overclocking.

You already said why you want that second, but quick sync on 11th gen is really good at encoding.


EDIT -- More looking the 3060 can draw more than I thought. Up to double it seems.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Phantex does a 1200w PSU that they recommend for that case that has outputs to power two motherboards which is currently in stock at OC. My question is, is 1200w enough to power two machines with the latest generation of graphics cards?!

Definitely. Just get two 3060's and one of the machines to have best CPU you can afford (that's encoding/streaming most of the workloads). The second machine can be low power efficient stuff.

 

[benjamin.annas]

For that goal the 3060 is a much safer bet due to its power draw compared to a 3070.

Working on the idea of 370+150 and 170+150. I’ve not looked closely at all the power draw tbh but I think I’m in the ballpark.

With a rough guess would it be around 800-1000w total for the two systems before any overclocking.

You already said why you want that second, but quick sync on 11th gen is really good at encoding.


EDIT -- More looking the 3060 can draw more than I thought. Up to double it seems.

I think i'd be pushing it with a 3080 and a 3060 with a 1200watt PSU. I hope Phantex brings out a slightly beefier option!

 

[benjamin.annas]

Definitely. Just get two 3060's and one of the machines to have best CPU you can afford (that's encoding/streaming most of the workloads). The second machine can be low power efficient stuff.

Yer, but the 3080 is for my beast gaming machine... a 3060 wont cut the mustard for the main machine. Thanks though

 

[feck199]

Seen review listing dual 3090 as pulling 1050watts at peak. But yeah I would prefer a 1600w psu for the config your looking at however I do think it would work and undervolting the 3060 slightly should put you back in the safe range.

But I think you want to to have a much bigger margin.

 

[Joxeon]

Why not just get a SFF setup to run as the 2nd steaming PC?

 

[feck199]

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/super-flower-leadex-platinum-8pack-edition-2000w-fully-modular-80-plus-platinum-power-supply-ca-031-sf.html

2000w and a power splitter.. Quite easy to connect up an extra power button.