Upgrade Build: Game recording/streaming with webcam and commentary

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joebuzz83

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Hi,

I'd like to upgrade my PC to allow me to record game footage, stream live and have a webcam constantly shown/recorded with audio commentary.

My current build is:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Desktop Processor

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes

Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

PSU: Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready

Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 - High Air Flow Mid Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0 and All-Black Interior

GPUs (2 of the same in crossfire mode): SAPPHIRE 100354OCL Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5

MOBO: ASRock H61DE/S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard

SSD: Crucial m4 256GB 2.5-Inch (9.5mm) SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive CT256M4SSD2

======================================================

I filled out the standard info for this type of request below:.

Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP

Budget Range: $1200-1600 but open to spend a little more

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Recording gameplay footage on highest setting with little to no performance hit (if possible)

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: any and all that should be upgraded at this time

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon, NewEgg, TigerDirect, Micro Center, other known sites.

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Parts Preferences: Best available for the job, but intel/Nvidia preferred

Overclocking: Maybe. I havent really done this, but open to it.

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe, if needed.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Thanks for your time!

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I was wondering what I need to replace and what I should keep. I've been throwing components in the system as needed, but havent had a real good overhaul in a long time.

I am not able to play games at max setting anymore. In fact I'm seeing a decrease in quality of gameplay as the system gets older even with games i used to play. That may mean that I need to reformat, which I havnt done in years.

Anyway, Idealy I would like to stream, record gameplay footage and my webcam and mic feeds all at the same time while not impacting the frame rate on the recorded gameplay.

Currently, my system will record the game Outlast at under 30 frames a second. The game is also choppy while playing it. The video produced from my current setup runs at 10-25 frames and isnt at all stable.


Thanks for your time! I really appreciate the help!
 
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truegenius

truegenius

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i will recommend some upgrades but in 2 parts
in first part i will recommend upgrades you must have
and in second part i will suggest upgrades based on an experiment which you will do on your machine ( you can do this experiment in your current machine too )


here is first part
first i will definitely upgrade your board because you have a powerful cpu eagerly waiting to show its true potential
buy this one, and try to overclock your cpu between 4ghz to 4.5ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

and second, i will add atleast 1 HDD to record your gameplay because recording on ssd will kill ssd really fast and investing in hdd for recording worth every penny
add atleast one of this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
Click to expand...

now do this experiment
use this method to record your gameplay ( you can use trial versions of those softwares )
http://www.legitinformation.com/record-desktop-in-1080p-using-fraps-and-primocache-on-low-end-systems/
do those calculations correctly ( i think its toughest part :p )
try as many games as you can with this method because some games does not work with this method and don't forget to turn vsync on ( also try to use 1080p 60fps recording in fraps )
and don't forget to convert videos before playing them else playback will be choppy because of almost lossless recording
and note the smoothness and fps of gameplay while recording ( frame will drop if you ran out of buffer so stop recording at that moment ) and smoothness of video while playing them

here is second part, if you find above method useful then do these upgrades
buy total of 4 of these and use all of them in raid 1 and dedicate them only for recording purpose ( 4 in raid 1 will result in 400 to 600MBps bandwidth )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

and this to record almost unlimited length of video ( though you can experiment with your current ram to see if you run out of buffer )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231590
Click to expand...

so all of these hardware upgrades will costs around $800
also let me know if that experiment worked for you or not, you can also try 3840x2160 resolution to see how this method scales with resolution :)

edit :
btw regarding webcam overlay, you can use other software to record webcam ( while recording gameplay too, make sure these 2 things does not cause compatability issue with each other ) and then use some editor to sync and make it an overlay on your gameplay recording
 
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J

joebuzz83

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I sincerely appreciate your response.

Do you not think I need to invest in a better processor and video card? My PC has trouble playing most games past 30-45 frames these days. I see many people playing the same games with much better graphics and things are smoother. Do you think these upgrades will fix the issues I'm having with playing the games?

I'd like to produce very smooth looking high quality videos of me playing the games. Thanks!



 
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truegenius

truegenius

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can you list some games that you play and at what settings ?

your system is great for 1080p gaming
either your are driving every image quality setting to highest or there maybe something wrong going with your system

my system is much worse than yours (system in my sig) and considering how it performs i can say that you can do constant 60fps or even 120fps if you carefully choose image settings

i very much like i5-2500k cpu, it got great overclock potential which when done right makes it better than current processors, if you can overclock then i won't recommend to upgrade, though if you can't then upgrading will be option

though, i think that your system is suffering some other problem (considering your fps)
so first post hwinfo64 (sensor tab) screenshot here (2 shots while idle and after gaming)

i was specific about upgrades because they will perform for this job and won't cost much too
in my recommendation above, i suggested z77 extreme 4 because it is a great board (though i see that it is out of stock now, i can give a list of recommended )
it have great review too from many reputed sites, you can google for that
i suggested that specific seagate hdd because it is supposed to provide good sequential for the price which is indeed main ingredients for uncompressed video recording

btw, you can try that experiment without any upgrade, have you tried it yet ?
 
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joebuzz83

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I've not played with overclocking too much. How would I go about doing that? My GPU's have an overclock feature buiolt into the driver software. Would I have to alter bios settings?

Assassins creed black flag would lag a decent amount. It drops below 20 frames. Havent tested this while recording.
World of warcraft lags on best settings. That game is from 2004. Havent tested this while recording.
Outlast was not able to run past 45 frames and dropped below 20 when recording. Not even on max settings.
I would lag playing call of duty and battlefield also

I havent tried the experiment you mentioned although I have followed guides to optimize recording videos with optimal settings without specialized hardware. No real benefit. I'll try your experiment also.

Would you mind suggesting another mother board?

Also, I should probably think about refromatting. I haven't done that in years.




 
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truegenius

truegenius

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if you are getting those fps in those games then your system must be overheating and throttling
post hwinfor64 sensor tab screenshot ( while idle and while gaming) to see what is throttling

reformatting isn't necessary unless something bad happened to OS
you can try check disk in for every drive and can de-fragment every drive too ( right click any drive> properties > tools )
 
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truegenius

truegenius

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there nothing much choice available for board now, so will have to do with this
it is in stocks in there sites
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-Z77EX4&c=CJ
http://www.microcenter.com/product/387554/Z77_Extreme4_Socket_LGA_1155_Z77_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

my main aim here is to get a board with crossfire support, 8+ phase with heatsink, 4x8GB ram

btw, you have listed that you are using 2 hd7870 in crossfire with that board, are you sure :heink: , if yes then can you explain me how you are doing this because there is no way that you can use 2 graphics card with that board :pfff:
 
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joebuzz83

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It would make sense that my board doesnt support crossfire since whenever I enable it, nothing really happens. I'm assuming that I should see significant benefits using crossfire. I always wondered why I saw little to no difference with crossfire.

I'll go pick up this board at my local microcenter today. I can deal with $130 to potentially fix all my issues.


As for the ram, I see that a lot of people have trouble with the ram you selected. Is there a different set that you could recommend? Should I just look for similar models?

So, in your opinion, this is the best board for my money without upgrading the whole computer? It looks good to me.



 
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truegenius

truegenius

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ram upgrade isn't necessary yet, it will be needed only if that recording trick works else they won't be any better

yes that board is currently best for your money and need, if i go for even better board then better will be to upgrade cpu too which isn't necessary

though i still didn't get it, that how you fitted 2 hd7870 in that board as it does not have 2 pcie x16 slots so crossfire option won't appear in ccc

btw i still didn't see any hwinfo64 (sensor tab) screen shoot, it is a freeware
 
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joebuzz83

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I went to my local micro center, bought the mobo, installed it, booted up my system with the new mobo and then thought to double check the model of my old motherboard. You kept mentioning that crossfire wasnt supported by my motherboard.

I looked at the link I sent you for the motherboard i thought i had in my pc. Wrong one!

What do you think of my old motherboard? I'm going to reinstall it if you don't think its worth the upgrade to the z77 Extreme

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157231&cm_re=asrock_p67-_-13-157-231-_-Product

I've also included the screencap you asked for: HWINFO IMAGE
 
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truegenius

truegenius

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if that was your old board then it was great and didn't needed any upgrades to board

the hwinfo pic you posted is only partial
i need to see full pic with temperatures readings
and i need 2 pics , one while system remains idle and one after playing some game
so as to see idle temps and load temps to find out if it is overheating or throttling
 
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joebuzz83

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Ok, I'll return it tomorrow. My mistake for not knowing my mobo model. :p

I was doing some light reading on overclocking. It seems that the risk is premature hardware death, which may be costly. Is that a significant concern or will you recommend light overclocking that will not burn out my cpu/gpu? I am sincerely interested in pushing these components to work harder since they have been left to relax since I got them! ;-)

I havent tried the experiment that you mentioned, but will tonight. Looking forward to getting my computer up to speed to produce some videos. Nice creative outlet I think.

I'll post all of the screenshots later. The screenshot I sent was with all of the recording software running.

Also, when I opened my case to replace the mobo, I thoroughly cleaned the fans and heatsinks. The cpu heatsink was completely caked with dirt and dust. I've been cleaning the case with compressed air, but just what i could see. hopefully this cleaning will do something.



 
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truegenius

truegenius

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overclocking doesn't decrease component life if done correctly
indeed it can increase performance, efficiency, and life too ( because overclocking with tweaked voltage can result in lower power consumption than stock )
It is temperature and voltage which kills components
max temperature for your cpu is 72'C at full load
try to keep it below 70'C at full load (even at overclock)

here is a good guide for you ( it have same cpu as yours and almost same board (though yours is better board, thus for you overclocking will be easier)
http://www.overclock.net/t/1198504/complete-overclocking-guide-sandy-bridge-ivy-bridge-asrock-edition
you should not go above 1.3v for cpu vcore, this much voltage will be enough for somewhere between 4-4.5ghz overclock

dust causes decrease air flow, decrease contact between connectors (especially pcie) which leads overheating, and decreases pcie bandwidth to minimum which result in very poor gameplay and decrease in component life.
It is good thing that you cleaned your case.

also, use new thermal compound while cleaning and reinstalling heat sink, you can use either cooler master xtreme x1 or noctua NT-H1 thermal paste, and don't forget to check temperatures after plying new thermal compound.
 
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