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HD Streaming while Gaming PC build

Z

Zelniq

Junior Member
1. I'm building a PC I plan to use to stream (on a site like twitch.tv) while playing Starcraft 2 in preferably smooth HD quality.

2. I've already ordered all my parts, just want to confirm if people agree it's a good build for this. I can still exchange/return. Budget was some concern, I tried to find the best deals without sacrificing important performance. Total came out to $750 after tax/shipping/rebates.

I want to run Starcraft 2 in 1080p (1920x1080) resolution, on at least Medium graphics/texture quality settings (I'd gladly play High/Ultra if possible but Medium is sufficient), while streaming in HD quality 720p or 1080p, with mp3s in background/web browser, possibly (but unlikely) a small webcam window, all without feeling lagged in-game. I know you need high upload bandwidth which I do currently have with Verizon FiOS.



CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3Ghz

MOTHERBOARD: BIOSTAR TZ68A+ LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

VIDEO: SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

OS/SOFTWARE HD: OCZ AGILITY 3 60GB INT-SSD 2.5" SATA III

DATA HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

POWER: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D

CASE: Antec Solo ATX Mid Tower (recycled from used PC)

OPTICAL: Samsung 8X external slim DVD-writer USB (recycled as well)

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, eventually 8


I'm open to overclocking though I'm inexperienced with it, and I'm assuming I need to buy a cooler, but I want a quiet and reasonably inexpensive one if possible.

Also is that 380W PSU enough? I put in all the info on a power supply calculator site (http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp) and it fit within the recommended Wattage for PSU.

And should I use Virtu? I'm fairly unfamiliar with it, but I believe my build supports it.

I'm worried the 60 GB SSD isn't going to be big enough for Windows 7 + Starcraft 2 + Diablo 3 as well

Finally, I'm slightly concerned about the loudness.. (particularly my graphics card) I'd really love a quiet PC. If I need to buy a separate heatsink for overclocking, I'd like a quiet one as well.

Thank you in advance ♥
 
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Yeah, that PSU makes me real nervous. Did you read the warning on that calculator site?
The recommended total Power Supply Wattage gives you a general idea on what to look for BUT it is NOT a crucial factor in power supply selection! Total Amperage Available on the +12V Rail(s) is the most important, followed by the +5V amperage and then the +3.3V amperage.
Click to expand...
 
someone from a different site who seems to know what he's talking about says it should be more than enough

also I've made some changes based off that guy's suggestions:

SSD: Crucial M4 64 GB SSD 6.0 GB/s
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F4EG 1.5 TB
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Gaia SD1283

tho I'm not sure if I should get an OCZ Vertex 3 SATA-III instead, it also is supposed to be very good, costs $20 more
 
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That PSU is a Delta, not bad, but not great. For about the same price AR, I'd go with this 450W Seasonic: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371031

If what I hear is correct, the OCZ SSD is not very good at all. Stick with the Crucial unit if you're certain you want SSD. And you should have plenty of room to spare after install of the OS and those two games.

In the early days, the 1.5TB drives had an alarmingly high failure rate or DOA rate. Seems better now, but look at the number of people at the 'egg who post reviews after six months or a year: failures or bad sectors. Many of those people bought a handful of drives, with multiple drives ending up going bad. The old Samsung F1s were great (I have old 750 and 1TB in my main machine), but the newer drives seem more prone to developing problems. For my wife's machine that I ordered on Wednesday, I went with the 750 Black...she wants both speed and reliability, and I'm hoping the less densely packed platters gives the reliability.
 
The Earthwatts will handle that rig, but leaves less margin that I'd personally be comfortable with.

Also know that you are taking a chance with the OCZ SSD. They're good when they work correctly, but damn if they don't break a lot. Definitely set up an image-based backup to your other drive. Macrium Reflect will work well for this purpose.

Overall, the rest of the build looks fine to me. The most important part of a smooth FRAPS experience is having a dedicate drive to dump the raw footage to. Nothing else should be using that drive while you're recording.
 
so far I'm getting mixed responses about the PSU, some saying it's enough, others saying they're concerned it's not enough..but atm I'm leaning towards just sticking with this Antec Earthwatts 380D

I'm not even going to bother with this OCZ Agility 3, just going to wait for the Crucial M4 64 GB SSD 6.0 GB/s

as for why I got the Samsung Spinpoint 1.5 TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo)

There was a decent deal going on for it plus the reviews are good. only 3 out of 47 reviewers complained about it going DOA..and it's likely there are a lot more people who had no issues with it and so never bothered to review it either.

@ T Yamamoto: why what's wrong with Biostar? the review on Tomshardware was pretty good http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,2980-4.html
 
Biostar used to be horrible but now they are alright, but I still would recommend ASRock, MSI, or ASUS over Biostar any day of the week
 
It's always smart to have some headroom when selecting your power supply. When I built my system, I chose the Antec Earthwatts 650w about two years ago. At the time, all I had in the system was a mATX motherboard, a single 2GB DDR2, no GPU (integrated), 1 hard drive and a DVDRW. That's it. Obviously 650w is overkill.

Over the past two years I've added two more hard drives (one HDD and one SSD), a GTX460SE video card, webcam, and I'll probably add more before I finally succumb to upgrade-itis. I think it was a pretty good thing to have gotten a power supply that will still be comfortable running all this and not be at max capacity.

The other thing is, the 80 Plus/Bronze/Silver/Gold certifications are something you want. I'm pretty sure the PSU you selected does have 80 Plus Bronze. Still, I wouldn't go with 380w unless you think it pretty much impossible that you may add more components to your system in the next couple years.

It's definitely not a question of whether it's "enough", the system as it is will definitely work. There's something to be said about having peace of mind though and not needing to worry about changing the PSU if you add stuff to your PC.
 
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