Let's Build a Streaming PC (Day 3336 - 1/12/19)

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Stephen says that this computer is going to be used for streaming on Twitch. He gave Jeff a budget of $1,500 and asked him to help pick out parts for the computer. Stephen says that he has knowledge on building computers and some knowledge on picking out parts. But, he thought it would be better to ask Jeff since Jeff used to be the editor-in-chief for a popular computer hardware site named "The Tech Report".

Stephen wanted a small form factor since he wanted to be able to easily move it around, so he got a Fractal Design Core Mini 500 ITX case. Additionally, he got a Gear Grip Micro LT Harness which is a strap with a handle that goes around the computer, so you can hold it. The motherboard is a ASRock Z390 Mini ITX, and the power supply is a SeaSonic FOCUS SGX 650w. Stephen says that the power supply contains more power than they need, but he wanted the option to be able to turn the computer into a gaming computer if needed. He said that they are going to use the onboard graphics from the motherboard and they only need the CPU for streaming, so they don't need a GPU.

He got a Noctua NH-C14S CPU cooler, a Noctua NF-A14 fan, a splitter cable (to power both fans), a Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB for the SSD, a Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2x8GB) for the RAM, a Hitachi Deskstar NAS 4TB for the HDD (to be able to save local stream recordings), and a LogiTech Wireless keyboard with a track pad. Stephen says that with streaming you can do hardware encoding or let the CPU handle the work. Jeff has a large amount of computer hardware at his house since he used to work for Tech Report, so he tested both ways and found out that the CPU works best. Therefore, half of the budget went to buying a Core i9 9900K 3.6GHz for the CPU.

Stephen builds the computer which is seen through a sped up montage. He mentions that the memory card ran out of space on the Black Magic camera, but it only missed him putting in a couple parts. Stephen then plugs it in to see if it works and heard a couple beeps. However, he wasn't sure what they meant since the manual for the motherboard didn't mention anything about it and couldn't find any information on the company's website either. Subtitles added during editing said that the beeping may have been alerting him that there is no GPU.

Stephen says that all the parts are really crammed into the form factor since it's really small and it was difficult trying to figure out how to fit it all. He says that he even had to remove a built-in part of the form factor in order to fit all the parts in. Stephen had asked Jeff if they could just use 1 fan, but Jeff recommended using 2 because the CPU will be doing the majority of the work and needs to be kept cool. He says that he will deal with all the software tomorrow since it took him longer to build the computer than he originally thought.