Streaming/Recording PC build is it worth it?

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So, having gradually upgrading my PC over the past few months, im left with a 965 BE CPU, 4gigs of Corsair XMS Ram, a Hard drive and a motherboard (cant quite remember what it is!) - currently, it's all just sitting in a box.

The question i ask is: Is it worth building a streaming PC to take the load off my gaming PC when streaming gameplay on twitch.tv or recording videos etc... I assume there would be no performance hit whilst recording on a second PC?

All i would need is a case, PSU and graphics card, all mid range i would think?

If you have done this or have any suggestions i would be happy to hear them :)

Thanks.
 
I don't have an answer for you, however I would be interested to see other people's answers to this question.

When I've watched a Twitch user streaming at 60FPS, generally within their notes they've always got a heavy CPU based machine titled their 'Streaming PC'.
 
Yup, having a recording rig would mean zero overheads on your gaming rig.

You will need a capture card of some variety though. Most of the encoding is done by the CPU so yes a low/mid range graphics card would do fine.
4GB of RAM is also fine, you won't find yourself using more than 2.5GB, but that will more likely be based on what software you stream with.

My stream rig is i7-920, 12GB RAM, HD6450 and a Blackmagic intensity pro & Shuttle.
(12GB of RAM is only because I also use it for video and photo editing as well)

When streaming 720p @ 60pfs my CPU usage is around 30%. 1080p @ 30fps it goes up to 50%-60%. No consumer capture card can record 1080p @ 60fps AFAIK.
 
Yup, having a recording rig would mean zero overheads on your gaming rig.

You will need a capture card of some variety though. Most of the encoding is done by the CPU so yes a low/mid range graphics card would do fine.
4GB of RAM is also fine, you won't find yourself using more than 2.5GB, but that will more likely be based on what software you stream with.

My stream rig is i7-920, 12GB RAM, HD6450 and a Blackmagic intensity pro & Shuttle.
(12GB of RAM is only because I also use it for video and photo editing as well)

When streaming 720p @ 60pfs my CPU usage is around 30%. 1080p @ 30fps it goes up to 50%-60%. No consumer capture card can record 1080p @ 60fps AFAIK.



Thanks Robbie, helped me out there :)

Im tempted to go for it, for the price of the components i need, its not too bad considering it will have zero impact on the gaming rig.

Could i use DXtory instead of getting a Capture card?
 
I wouldn't of thought so :(
Because you need some way of getting the video feed from your gaming rig into your streaming rig.
DXTory only works on the rig which you are playing the game on, I believe, as I have never toyed with it.
 
Quick question everyone,

I'm planning to get me some low end recording PC, Basicly I'm looking for something about £350,
I know it's not a lot but I have reasonable performance on my main rig, this price is without a capture card.

this is what I am looking atm:
i5 3330
8gb ram
2Tb seagate disc
some 500W psu


I also want to use this as a NAS storage, so recording and, storage and maybe rendering the videos (if that will choke the CPU down I will just do it on my main pc.)
I am going to get a 700 series graphics card just before BF4 release so this capture rig will inherit Gtx 570 later down the road.

Will this recording pc be all right ? Can you suggest some budget capture card ? ~£150
 
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