building a live stream workstation, advice needed

T

tacos4me

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Apr 5, 2006
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hello all. i'm putting together a box at work for our live stream guys (local sports, events, concerts, etc). i have a budget of around $3k. after the blackmagic card i require, i've got about $1800 for everything else.

couple of questions. what's the most mobile/easy to lug around case you've seen? obviously the smaller the form factor the better. it needs to be rugged as well, it will see some action. i do, however, need to fit a full size blackmagic card..

and also, what would everyone recommend i cram inside it for hardware? i've been thinking at least a quad, with 16gb+ would be sufficient. we run wirecast and it's a hog at times.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
live video production. using wirecast mainly. plus all blackmagic software for hdmi inputs on main cameras.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
budget sits at about $2000 right now
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
united states, maine.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
i'm thinking a decent quad core is needed for what this machine will be doing. wirecast is a complete dog on anything, encoding everything on the fly. i'd like to have a ivy bridge chip in this machine for the newer intel graphics, as there will be no room for a card in this machine. might as well go with 16gb of ram. everything else is up in the air.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
none. everything brand new.
6) Will you be overclocking?
no overclocking, being a production machine. stability is key.
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
we'll be adding a 15-17 inch monitor directly onto the sff case itself. yet to be decided really, going to depend on case. portability is a must.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
asap. this machine is needed for the upcoming basketball season.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
must have wifi for our hotspot and cameras. we'll be using cerevo liveshell mounted on our portable cameras.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
we already have all of our software licenses, need not be included.
 
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essentially, i'm trying to do this for a lot less money. there's no reason that thing should cost what it does.
 
Wow I need to get some sleep: I misread that $8500 quote as "$5800" and thought that was a reasonable price for a sec.

Anyway, is that Blackmagic card the only expansion card you'll be adding to the PC? Or do you plan on adding more cards in the future? Which Blackmagic card?

EDIT: I'm starting to see why that Livestream studio costs so much looking through the specs. There seems to be quite a bit of specifically made for this PC tech here.
 
Danny Bui said:
Wow I need to get some sleep: I misread that $8500 quote as "$5800" and thought that was a reasonable price for a sec.

Anyway, is that Blackmagic card the only expansion card you'll be adding to the PC? Or do you plan on adding more cards in the future? Which Blackmagic card?

EDIT: I'm starting to see why that Livestream studio costs so much looking through the specs. There seems to be quite a bit of specifically made for this PC tech here.
Click to expand...

for what it can do, yes, it's really not that bad. however i don't need even half of what it offers. i can put the same exact thing together myself and save the company a bunch of money. considering we've already licensed all of our software.. it just doesn't make sense to drop $8500 on that thing.

we're going to be using 2 Canon XF105's and up to four wifi go-pros. so two sdi inputs and that asus board offers built in wifi, which should handle those wifi cameras, but we may add more.

to answer your question, yes, just the blackmagic card.
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklinkquad/

again, we may add more sdi cameras in the future.
 
So more cameras means more cards? I ask because an ITX setup will only have room for one Blackmagic card. If you need more than one card, you'll have to go with mATX. So mITX or mATX for you?
 
i can have four sdi cameras on that single card.. if it fits. it's a decent sized card. the canons aren't cheap by any means, so i don't see us getting more than three of them, ever, unless we pull in $100k+ in advertising this holiday season. that shouldn't be the problem.

i'd really like to go with ATX, in case we ever needed a GPU or whatever may come up. this thing has to be fairly light to carry around everyday though.. i was hoping to find something like that blackmagic all-in-one case that i didn't have to hack to pieces and/or extensively modify.

i about to order this ITX case and just say fuck it, but i still haven't really talked myself into it yet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112348
 
I read the title as "live steam workstation" and was like, this I gotta see
 
tacos4me said:
i'd really like to go with ATX, in case we ever needed a GPU or whatever may come up. this thing has to be fairly light to carry around everyday though.. i was hoping to find something like that blackmagic all-in-one case that i didn't have to hack to pieces and/or extensively modify.
Click to expand...
Let's split the difference: Go for mATX. That's the form factor of that Livestream Studio HD500. That way you'll be able to fit in a GPU if needed and get some sort of weight savings over ATX. Since weight is a concern, aluminum based cases will be your best bet. I recommend these two mATX cases:
$113 - Lian Li PC-A04B Black mATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-A04A Silver mATX Case

EDIT: Also note that the smallest available monitor on Newegg that has the same 1080P resolution like that Livestream Studio HD500 has is this Acer 21.5" LCD.
 
yeah, i think that's what i'll do. what's an extra few pounds. i'll just have to get one of those carrying straps everyone used back in the lan party days. :D

the monitor is still up in the air. no idea what we're going to do there yet. i'd like to build one into it, but i'm sure it'll be more trouble than it's worth.. if i could even find a panel. we have some nasty NEC workstation monitors at the office.. but they're all too large for anything reasonable to carry around. i'll have to shop around for a good panel. color reproduction is important!

EDIT: i'll post a worklog of this thing if anybody is interested in this type of shit. i know i've done a TON of research and there's not many good products out there at a reasonable price for a small company looking to do something like this.
 
Here's a preliminary build:
$408 - Intel Core i7 3770 CPU + Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H Intel Z77 mATX Motherboard Combo
$71 - Corsair Vengeance LP CML16GX3M2A1600C10 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$189 - Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD
$70 - SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W Modular PSU
$113 - Lian Li PC-A04B Black mATX Case
----
Total: $851 shipped
 
thanks for the help, danny. i've ordered pretty much everything on that list, as it's about $50 cheaper than the one i configured. with the exception of the mobo. ended up with an asus one for the onboard wifi.
 
tacos4me said:
i'll post a worklog of this thing if anybody is interested in this type of shit. i know i've done a TON of research and there's not many good products out there at a reasonable price for a small company looking to do something like this.
Click to expand...
I'm interested. When you start the thread, please post a link to it here.

tacos4me said:
thanks for the help, danny. i've ordered pretty much everything on that list, as it's about $50 cheaper than the one i configured. with the exception of the mobo. ended up with an asus one for the onboard wifi.
Click to expand...
I'd skip the onboard wifi, and go with an Intel wireless adapter instead... if you got a free PCIe socket.
 
tacos4me said:
thanks for the help, danny. i've ordered pretty much everything on that list, as it's about $50 cheaper than the one i configured. with the exception of the mobo. ended up with an asus one for the onboard wifi.
Click to expand...

I knew I forgot something. Yeah I would have recommended the Intel wifi route as well.


Well good luck with the build!
 
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