Best Possible PC Build for HD Video Streaming & Audio Recording?

[techstud]

Hey all, I'm new to the forums and looked at a few other builds, but none fit exactly what I'm looking for. I'd appreciate any help or suggestions on this build.

So here are the details:

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Next 2 weeks or so

BUDGET RANGE: $800-1200 After Rebates/Shipping

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Video Streaming (via Ustream, Livestream, or other) w/ future capability for software camera switching, Audio Recording via Firewire, Audio Editing, Video recording, Video Editing, DVD Production & Duplication

ARE YOU BUYING A MONITOR: Yes, at least 1, if not two

MONITOR RESOLUTION: At least 1 would need to be 1920x1080

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Firewire PCI expansion card. Also, I currently have an Avermedia Game Broadcaster HD capture card (PCI-E) for HDMI/VGA/Comp, but would like options for HD-SDI cards.

DO YOU NEED TO BUY OS: Currently have an extra license of Win 7 Ultimate, unless other is recommended

PREFERRED WEBSITE FOR PARTS: Newegg.com, TigerDirect.com, or any solid recommendations

LOCATION: Hamilton, MT USA (Not many in-store options)

PARTS PREFERENCES: No brand preferences

OVERCLOCKING: If needed (I haven't done it before)

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: If needed

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
I work with a church that is looking to stream video from a single new HD camcorder as well as run a control & capture software for a new Presonus StudioLive 24.4.2 digital mixing board that connects via firewire (6-pin). A Dual screen setup will be necessary for most of what we need to do.

Our budget is $800-1200, although being a non-profit, the more we can save, the better.

For the HD professional camcorder, I understand that I would either need an HD-SDI or HDMI capable capture card, depending on the camera's outputs. We haven't chosen a camera yet, but are looking at the Canon XA10. I did pick up an Avermedia Game Broadcaster HD card that worked for HDMI capture on a different $600 prebuilt HP system we have. But after about an hour, it caused the pc to freeze & required a manual reboot.

With all of this in mind, I'm also considering a used pre-built Mac Pro option, although I've been strictly a PC guy. Just want to make sure we get the best option we can.

 

[dingo07]

what are you streaming the camera source to? and is it Live Feed stream?

 

[techstud]

We were previously streaming a Canon XL1 with firewire to the firewire card mentioned above in an old pc. We would be streaming HD with either firewire, HDMI, or HD-SDI into this new build.

It is a Live Feed Stream using Ustream.tv right now, but we may be looking for a different ad-free option. We would also like to feed the live video through this computer to other rooms in our church, whether via cabling or an already-in-place coaxial feed, but that might just be a matter of sending from a separate output on the camera.

 

[dingo07]

have you checked out Full Compass?
http://www.fullcompass.com/

 

[techstud]

No, what for exactly? The camera? The PC?

 

[dingo07]

I would first contact them for the gear, camera and everything excluding the PC - I doubt highly u will find reliable equipment at your price point

once u have all your gear, putting together a PC to handle the data is simple

 

[techstud]

I have all the gear lined up through another company, www.ccisolutions.com, but am still floundering on the camcorder.

I understand that live video recording to a computer is extremely difficult and taxing, so I would like to know what kind of setup we would need to be able to pull it off. We'd prefer to record and archive the HD footage to a network drive, even if it needs to be after the capture is complete.

 

[dingo07]

you can't possibly put together a system to optimally do what you're asking with the budget you mentioned - you'll be lucky to get a NAS with drives for 2/3 that budget

consider a good "gaming" pc today - about $1300 not including monitor, add your capture card that could be in the neighborhood of $500-800 and u can see where I'm going

you might be able to get away with a super simple RAID 0 with 4-6 2TB WD REDS, but again, the drives alone eat up most of your budget!

 

[techstud]

Well, I'm sorry if I'm causing confusion. We already have a Server with 4TB worth of drives in it. We can easily transfer and store the videos to that network drive after the fact. But if you're saying it would take a 4-6 hdd raid 0 array to do live hd recording/encoding, then we can pretty much take that feature off the list.

The most important thing right now is that we get a computer that can handle the hd video streaming and audio recording without running into issues. I want it to be powerful enough to take care of our future needs as well, that's why I'm not going for a $600 build that I think could handle those two main purposes.

Does that make sense? So is there a build that can fulfill our other purposes without necessarily having to handle live recording? I really appreciate the help!

 

[dingo07]

well, u mind as well just pick the best parts available today, that fit your budget, because without spending more, you're not going to get more performance, you know?

it's mostly going to come down to the capture card you choose, any mainstream i5 or i7 (even better) will work

read through the homebuilt threads - there's tons of posts asking for $1000-$1500 builds and they're all the same except for a different case mostly

 

[techstud]

Ok, Dingo thanks for your thoughts on that.

I found pcpartspicker.com on here and haven't been able to stop playing around with it. Here's what I came up with for my ideas on the build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qeMm

I have the 4 Lite-On burners to aid in dvd duplication.
8 Channel audio is built into the mobo & playback will only be headphones or back into our mixer usually.
I might even be able to cut out the HDD as I have a 1TB Seagate 5400rpm laying around.

My main questions:
1. Is the video card powerful enough for HD video playback & editing? What are some recommendations on that?
2. Does this Core i5 look sufficient? I could kick up to the 2nd rated i7 for an extra 100 & might do that.
3. Is an SSD necessary for the OS & software? (I've never had a pc with one before)
4. Is the memory I chose the right way to go (brand, speed, too much/little)?

This is my first build, so I understand I might be completely off on my build ideas.

 

[techstud]

Does anyone have any input on the build?

 

[kevinr43]

Hello all I'm also in need of some help. My church is looking for a new pc build for HD video streaming from 3 digital cameras as well as audion and dvd/cd burning/duplication. Can anyone help with what type of build i would need? Also the budget is between $1200 and $1500 Thanks.

 

[dingo07]

Base the build off of the software you're using and the hardware requirements to run the software.

 

[techstud]

Hey all, I'm resurrecting this thread as I am back to build another computer with similar needs.

The computer I built for this project was bogging down with 100% CPU when running our projection software & streaming video at 3-5k bitrates. It's specs are below.

We had also purchased a Mac mini with i5 to run our Presonus StudioLive digital interface & capture 24 channel audio recordings, but it runs slow & storage dwindles quickly.

So I'm looking to build a new rig to handle the streaming at least and possibly also the audio recordings. I'd like to know the best options in a similar budget range, maybe $800-1200.

Previous build:
[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qCHdCJ) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qCHdCJ/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80637i73770k) | $249.99 @ Micro Center
**CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rrb10212pg1) | $29.98 @ OutletPC
**Motherboard** | [ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z77extreme6) | $164.98 @ SuperBiiz
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl10q32gbzl) | $295.98 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7td250bw) | $149.97 @ OutletPC
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st3000dm001) | $101.46 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [Gigabyte GeForce GT 640 2GB Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn640oc2gi) |-
**Case** | [Silverstone PS06B-W ATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-case-ps06bw) |-
**Power Supply** | [Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500W ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-power-supply-rs500pcard3us) | $48.98 @ SuperBiiz
**Optical Drive** | [Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas124-04) | $16.98 @ OutletPC
**Optical Drive** | [Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas124-04) | $16.98 @ OutletPC
**Optical Drive** | [Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas124-04) | $16.98 @ OutletPC
**Keyboard** | [Enermax KM001W Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/enermax-keyboard-km001w) | $29.73 @ Amazon
**Other**| Windows 8 Pro Upgrade| $39.00
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $1161.01
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-06 14:56 EST-0500 |

 

[dingo07]

well... hello again...
you're asking the same basic question again, with the same budget... guess what? you're going to get the same result!!!

Double the budget and build the Correct computer One time, and be done with it!!!

 

[techstud]

Well, I guess that's the question I'm asking Dingo, is what would the build be if we have to double the budget? If I'm only building off the hardware requirements of the software we're using, then what we built before and what I'm planning to build now should both be more than enough. I might be able to double the budget, but I need to know what I'd be looking for at that point and why it would be necessary to spend that much on it. Again, I don't need to spend $500-800 on a capture card right now as what we have is working great. We have a 12TB NAS (4x4TB drives in RAID), so there is plenty of space for archiving there, but despite the gigabit connections, I don't think the HD streams could be recorded directly to the NAS anyway without experiencing issues.

Here is the most recent build that I was planning for this situation - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qJ9F3C

With the previously built system, we found that we couldn't both record in HD in wirecast & stream in HD through wirecast, so we ended up recording at the camera and just streaming at the PC. What I'm understanding is that you're saying that this is a HDD limitation, not a CPU limitation, is that correct? Could we install a RAID HDD setup inside the PC with software setup to move those files to the NAS after they have been recorded to alleviate that issue?


I appreciate your input and the input of anyone else. I have to save money however I can, but if we simply can't do what we want to with the budget, we need to expand or kill the idea. Thanks!

 

[shibcr26]

techstud how did your build go? After reading your posts I'm interested in knowing the end results. Keep up the good work. What congegration are you with?