Cpu for Dedicated Streaming build

[MadCam]

I'm having trouble choosing a cpu, twitch says a minimum of i5-4670, would an AMD 2200g or 3200g work? Is the cpu as important with hardware encoding?

[boggy77]

What's the rest of your build? What's your budget? What do you want to do with your pc?

[MadCam]

I haven't planned specific parts but my budget is $450 -$500, I was planning a 250gb ssd, 8gb ram, the pc would only be used as a second pc to stream to twitch, no gaming or editing

[mariushm]

It depends if you use hardware encoder on the video card to encode the stream, or if you plan to use the software encoder (ex. x264) to encode the video. 

With hardware encoder (video card), you could in theory stream with even a dual core processor.  With software encoder, you basically have to give the software encoder one or several cpu cores, depending on the quality settings you choose and the resolution and bitrate you chose.  A 720p stream requires much less processing power compared to a 1080p stream.

 

You can stream with a 2200g, but I'd recommend only if you have a separate video card that has hardware encoder, not a system that has only integrated graphics.

 

[mariushm]

2 minutes ago, MadCam said:

I haven't planned specific parts but my budget is $450 -$500, I was planning a 250gb ssd, 8gb ram, the pc would only be used as a second pc to stream to twitch, no gaming or editing

so you want a second computer strictly to compress the video and upload it to twitch, while you're playing on a separate computer?

Basically the stream pc just has some capture cards or receives game capture through network (NDI) and pc compresses and uploads to twitch/youtube?

In that case, you could go with a Ryzen 2700 and use strictly software encoder to upload to twitch, so you could use a cheap video card just to have some image on the computer. IF you want really cheap, Ryzen 1600 AF is supposed to be around 85$ but you also have 2700 for around 150$  or Ryzen 3600 for around 190$

Get a 70-90$ motherboard, 8-16 GB of memory (for strictly streaming, no gaming on it, 8 gb would probably be enough) and it should be fine.

[MadCam]

This is the list i came up with, just need it to handle 720p 60hz 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3mrKhg

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock A320M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY CS900 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($31.50 @ B&H)
Video Card: GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB (1-Click OC) Video Card
Case: Rosewill SCM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 400 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($78.40 @ Amazon)
Total: $333.85
 

[MadAnt250]

On 1/8/2020 at 7:32 PM, MadCam said:

I'm having trouble choosing a cpu, twitch says a minimum of i5-4670, would an AMD 2200g or 3200g work? Is the cpu as important with hardware encoding?

What system do you have right now? I think for around $500 with a combo of used and new parts you can have something that does pretty ok.

[mariushm]

3200g is expensive considering you'll have separate video card anyway.

It's not 3rd generation Ryzen, all processors with integrated graphics use the 2nd generation (zen+) cores.so there's no benefit to using them. If you think oh 3200 because 3xxx processors are much faster, no they're not.

 

AMD has released a new version of Ryzen 2600 with some internal changes that make it just a tiny bit below the regular Ryzen 2600 processors, and they're selling these processors as Ryzen 1600 AF (YD1600BBAFBOX) as opposed to the original Ryzen 1600 which had AE in the product code.

They recommend to be sold at 85$ and there's a company selling them on Amazon for that price, and Amazon themselves sell it for 110$ right now : Amazon.com: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 65W AM4 Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler (YD1600BBAFBOX): Computers & Accessories

The actual Ryzen 2600 is now 115$ : https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Processor-Wraith-Stealth-Cooler/dp/B07B41WS48/

 

It's just silly to spend 94$ on a 4 core 4 thread cpu with pci-e x8 link to video cards and integrated graphics, when you can spend 85$..115$ on a 6c 12 threads processor.

 

You are cheap and chose an A320 based motherboard, which will limit you to 2 memory slots so no room for future upgrade in the ram department and shitty resale value if you'll decide to sell the system in the future, and you're also losing overclocking option and the memory may be limited by the motherboard to 2666 Mhz or something like that.

B450 boards can be bought for 5-10$ more.

 

Here's a configuration with a few notes:

1. CPU can be as low as 85$ if you manage to order Ryzen 1600 AF

2. MB can be preordered from Amazon at 60$ (est. to arrive in stock tomorrow)

3. Configured only 1 8 GB stick, to leave you room to add a 2nd stick. May be worth just ordering a 16 GB kit, with just one stick you'll temporarily have a bit less performance (but you still have way more performance with 6 cores and 12 threads anyway, so you could suck it up for a month or two until you find 20-30$ more for a 2nd stick of ram)

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$114.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$63.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Aegis 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$29.99 @ Newegg
Storage	PNY CS900 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$29.99 @ Adorama
Case	Rosewill SCM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$29.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$49.99 @ Corsair
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$318.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-11 13:51 EST-0500

 

[MadCam]

i was going with 3200g mainly so i could test the system without a gpu since i wasnt buying that right this minute and Micro center has them for $74.99 (the lack of overclocking in motherboard didnt matter, not overclocking) but they currently have a 1600AF for the same price and a mb for a $10 more so i will probably go with that set up and just use the gpu in my main system to test it all out

[MadAnt250]

22 minutes ago, MadCam said:

Micro center has them for $74.99 (the lack of overclocking in motherboard didnt matter, not overclocking) but they currently have a 1600AF for the same price and a mb for a $10 more so i will probably go with that set up and just use the gpu in my main system to test it all out

Micro center has some good combo deals. You can probably save $20 on the motherboard when paired with a CPU.