SFF PC for a Video Pipeline

[anushab]

Hello everyone,

This is my first build and I am quite nervous in getting it right.:| I am a software developer for a medical device company that has data logging needs. I have been pouring over several pages and I have my requirements here but I am still not completely sure which size to go for.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
The following are the needs :
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
- 1GBe LAN
- Very Portable, (Preferably fit inside a SFF Bag/ or Carry on Case)
- Integrated graphics card
- Two PCIe slots
- High End processor for dual channel Full HD YUV 422-> H264 Video Compression by CPU.

The two PCIe for the Video Capture cards have been my main shortcoming as most miniATX mobos don't support 2 PCIe slots. I don't need a optical disk drive. Size, PCIe Slots and computational ability (are the only three important factors).

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$800- $900

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
None.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
The only overclocking will be that of the software compression by the CPU.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1080p

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within 2 weeks

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
No.

Thank you in advance for any input on this! 🙂

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Do you need full sized slots for the pcie cards? or can you use half size?

Here is what I have so far.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.56 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $454.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-19 22:42 EDT-0400)

 

[anushab]

First of all, thank you so much!! 🙂
The video capture card we are testing at the moment is the Blackmagic mini-recorder which has shields for both half height and full height (I think half height would well suffice and make the case more compact as well ...) But would there be a need to worry about the heat dissipation from the CPU and fitting the fan if we are using half height?? (Assuming the entire case's height would be less because of the half height?)

 

[T_Yamamoto]

You should be fine. These cases are made for they can fit the stock coolers.

Here is my update list
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Rosewill R379-M MicroATX Slim Case w/300W Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $583.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-20 16:28 EDT-0400)

You should PM a mod and have this moved to General Hardware, just visit the Moderator Discussion forum and ask them there.

Also, you may need to ghetto fit the SSD into the dvd bay. It should theoretically work.

 

[Zap]

You should PM a mod and have this moved to General Hardware, just visit the Moderator Discussion forum and ask them there.

Moved.

 

[Ken g6]

Well, T_Yamamoto's case is slim, but I wouldn't call it small. Dimensions on Newegg are 17.0" x 12.8" x 3.9". But that's about what you're going to get if you need more than one PCIe slot.

If I could find a mini-ITX board with Thunderbolt, you could stick one of these on there, one of the usual cards inside, and everything would work. But I can't find any such mobo.

I do see a video capture card that takes only one slot. It costs $470, though, which eats a lot of your budget. Continuing down this increasingly tenuous path, you could get either a medium-sized case (fits in an 11-inch cube) or a really small case that needs a riser card, which appears to be hard to find and potentially very expensive. Though a generic riser card might or might not work.

The other thing that occurs to me is that, since Sandy Bridge, Intel has included a dedicated H.264 encoder on each i-series CPU. It's called "Quick Sync", and uses the onboard graphics to produce medium-quality H.264 video. However, it only works with one video at a time. So for two video streams you'd need two whole systems - though you wouldn't need more than an i3 CPU. This solves your slot constraints too, but two systems overall might bust your budget. i5s do have this, too, so you could have one stream encode with Quick Sync while encoding the other stream with the rest of the CPU.

I guess the best option I see now is to take T_Yamamoto's build, use that expensive dual-encoder card, and replace:

Case: that 11-inch-cube case, $50 - same price
Mobo: ASRock B85M $80 - same price.
SSD: None - save $160

The net price with that $470 encoder card is about $900, right around the top of your budget.

 

[mfenn]

I do see a video capture card that takes only one slot. It costs $470, though, which eats a lot of your budget.

A potential issue I see with this card is that it uses SDI input. That's may be OK if the OP is capturing from pro video cameras, but that's not clear from his posts. OP, what input format do you need? SDI, HDMI, something completely different?

 

[anushab]

@Ken_g6: Though the 11 inch cube looks smaller, I would prefer a slimmer case, if it has to be carried in, say, a Pelican case.
That said, the intent of the software is to use ffmpeg API and the blackmagic SDK to have control over the bitrate, resolution and other compression parameters apart from other custom functionality, so using a recorder that records on it's own wouldn't be quite the solution I am looking for.

I have a video from an endoscopic camera system that can output both SDI and DVI (using a DVI-HDMI cable, the HDMI can be used), so either one can be chosen.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Blue_Max]

How about a Shuttle XPC system? Nice little cube, yet TWO FULL height PCIe slots (one x16, one x1)

Affordable, well-built, small, 3yr warranty off the bat.

 

[mfenn]

I have a video from an endoscopic camera system that can output both SDI and DVI (using a DVI-HDMI cable, the HDMI can be used), so either one can be chosen.

In that case, :thumbsup: to Ken's dual-input capture card idea.

Even if the riser causes PCIe to link up at only Gen1 x4, that's still 1 GB/s of transfer. YUV 422 is effectively 2 bytes per pixel, so 1 GB/s of transfer is good for 4 1080p60 streams. In all actuality, it will probably link up at Gen2 just fine (2 GB/s). I have seen Gen3 work over a 3m cable before.

 

[anushab]

Thank you Ken, I think that is the solution I will take up, with dual capture card board! Having a riser card is not much of an issue. The only question I have for you is that you mention no SSD is needed, is it possible that we can use the SSD itself and not have the Hard disk instead?

 

[mfenn]

Thank you Ken, I think that is the solution I will take up, with dual capture card board! Having a riser card is not much of an issue. The only question I have for you is that you mention no SSD is needed, is it possible that we can use the SSD itself and not have the Hard disk instead?

That depends on how much video you need to spool locally and how much compression you're doing on the fly in the CPU. You may run into space limitations when using the SSD only.