[SOLVED] Custom PC build for streaming

Jun 9, 2020
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Hello Community,

i would like to make use of the Nvidia "nvenc" and "turing" technologies in order to be able to provide a high quality stream to the audience.
The cheapest graphics card for that purpose was the GTX 1660-Ti
I read some benchmarks and am generally pleased with its price/performance ratio. Of course there are other RTX 20... cards that are better. Since i am only starting to stream i dont want to spend too much on my first build though.

Therefore i would like to ask you to suggest me a motherboard that can be used with the 1660-Ti and provide for an eventual upgrade to the RTX 20 series down the line (for when i still enjoy streaming at a point in time when the 1660-Ti will be too slow for future games).

Once i know what motherboard to use, i can figure the other specifications like the CPU out by myself. Also if anyone has advice or comments on the general idea behind what you just read, please dont hesitate to add your thoughts below.

Thanks a lot :)
 
Solution
@jeremyj_83 thanks for the Picker-list. I can see it being very useful.

@refillable Thank you for pointing that out. And after comparing the 1660 Ti witht the 1660 Super, i come to notice that i may have not researched enough in terms of what matters to me as a streamer. It is a jungle out there though with all these different specs. What motherboard would you suggest if i use the 1660 Super instead of the 1660-Ti?

here is my current build which i am fairly confident in after searching the whole day:

Nvidia RTX 2060Super
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x16GB
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MS-7C02)
be quiet! Straight Power 11 450W ATX 2.4
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
ASUS ROG Swift PG279QE, 27"

and
Viper M.2 VPN100...
Hello Community,

i would like to make use of the Nvidia "nvenc" and "turing" technologies in order to be able to provide a high quality stream to the audience.
The cheapest graphics card for that purpose was the GTX 1660-Ti
I read some benchmarks and am generally pleased with its price/performance ratio. Of course there are other RTX 20... cards that are better. Since i am only starting to stream i dont want to spend too much on my first build though.

Therefore i would like to ask you to suggest me a motherboard that can be used with the 1660-Ti and provide for an eventual upgrade to the RTX 20 series down the line (for when i still enjoy streaming at a point in time when the 1660-Ti will be too slow for future games).

Once i know what motherboard to use, i can figure the other specifications like the CPU out by myself. Also if anyone has advice or comments on the general idea behind what you just read, please dont hesitate to add your thoughts below.

Thanks a lot :)
Doing something like this will be a good platform.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($274.49 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($169.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $559.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-09 14:22 EDT-0400
 
NVENC might help but I don't know what new tech Turing brings to help streaming performance. Don't get the 1660 Ti when you have the 1660 Super around. Also, don't get the board @jeremyj_83 suggested. It is one of the worst X570 boards out there. If you are in the US, it is very hard to get boards on stock, so you might be better of waiting a bit until stock replenishes.
 
NVENC might help but I don't know what new tech Turing brings to help streaming performance. Don't get the 1660 Ti when you have the 1660 Super around. Also, don't get the board @jeremyj_83 suggested. It is one of the worst X570 boards out there. If you are in the US, it is very hard to get boards on stock, so you might be better of waiting a bit until stock replenishes.
I recommend that board because it is Tomshardware recommendation for budget X570 motherboards.
 
That's wrong. Even Tom (the writer) himself admitted that it didn't deserve it after retesting it.
From the article:
Conclusion
In our original conclusion, we noted that the MPG X570 Gaming Plus could be a bargain buy for those who simply wanted to pair a PCIe 4.0 SSD with a Ryzen 5 or 7 CPU. That narrow value advantage has since disappeared, as the cooler-running Asus Tuf Gaming X570 Plus has dropped to $165 at Newegg while the MPG X570 Gaming Plus remains $160 at Amazon. Even a small decrease in temperature would be enough to bump a board away from the margins that the 3900X-equipped MPG X570 Gaming Plus hit with our testbed cranked down to 40% fans.

While none of our tests validated the extremes we had come to expect, it’s nice to know that the thermal performance of our original testbed falls directly between that of our own closed build and MSI’s worst-case scenario. MSI has acknowledged that the VRMs on the X570 Gaming Plus can run hot under some operating conditions if the board is paired with a 3900X (or beyond) and put under heavy load. The company says to look to its forthcoming X570 Tomahawk motherboard as a similarly-priced alternative to the MPG X570 Gaming Plus. However, the company hasn’t specified a release date.

In short, it's certain that the MPG X570 can run hot depending on the CPU, settings, cooling system and workload that exceed our original test conditions. Responding to the valuable feedback we received has provided a great opportunity for us to refine our motherboard testing going forward so we can better reflect the range of components someone might use in the real world.

Is it the best motherboard no, but that conclusion also doesn't mean it is the worst. Would it be ideal for a 3900X, not really. However, for the OP we are looking at a 3600-3700X and it will be fine for that. Would the X570 Tomahawk be better, sure, but we don't know when that will be released.
 
Is it the best motherboard no, but that conclusion also doesn't mean it is the worst. Would it be ideal for a 3900X, not really. However, for the OP we are looking at a 3600-3700X and it will be fine for that. Would the X570 Tomahawk be better, sure, but we don't know when that will be released.
If it's barely better than MSI's own B450 boards then it's pretty much the worst option out there. And it is. And speaking of X570s IT IS one of the worst boards.
 
Jun 9, 2020
3
0
10
@jeremyj_83 thanks for the Picker-list. I can see it being very useful.

@refillable Thank you for pointing that out. And after comparing the 1660 Ti witht the 1660 Super, i come to notice that i may have not researched enough in terms of what matters to me as a streamer. It is a jungle out there though with all these different specs. What motherboard would you suggest if i use the 1660 Super instead of the 1660-Ti?

here is my current build which i am fairly confident in after searching the whole day:

Nvidia RTX 2060Super
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x16GB
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MS-7C02)
be quiet! Straight Power 11 450W ATX 2.4
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
ASUS ROG Swift PG279QE, 27"

and
Viper M.2 VPN100 512GB
or
Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 500GB
 
@jeremyj_83 thanks for the Picker-list. I can see it being very useful.

@refillable Thank you for pointing that out. And after comparing the 1660 Ti witht the 1660 Super, i come to notice that i may have not researched enough in terms of what matters to me as a streamer. It is a jungle out there though with all these different specs. What motherboard would you suggest if i use the 1660 Super instead of the 1660-Ti?

here is my current build which i am fairly confident in after searching the whole day:

Nvidia RTX 2060Super
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x16GB
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (MS-7C02)
be quiet! Straight Power 11 450W ATX 2.4
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
ASUS ROG Swift PG279QE, 27"

and
Viper M.2 VPN100 512GB
or
Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 500GB
Not bad. There are a couple things I would change just to save some money.
RAM: Nothing wrong with the Corsair LPX it is very good, just the G.Skill Aegis come in $10 cheaper and the only difference is it is 16-18-18-38 vs 16-18-18-36 for CAS timings. The very slight difference in 36 vs 38 on the CAS will make no difference in performance.
PSU: It is a sad day when Be Quiet PSUs are some of the cheapest on the market right now. Typically they are very over priced for what you get. The Straight Power platform is OK, but nothing special Review. You could get similar performance, all be it with slightly lower efficiency, for $30 with the Antec Earthwatts Gold Pro. This is based on the Seasonic Focus Gold platform that is very popular. It is only semi-modular instead of fully modular, but that isn't the worst.
SSD: The Samsung 970 series are the fastest SSD out there. That said they aren't worth the extreme price increase. For the cost of a 500GB 970 EVO Plus you can get the 1TB WD SN550. Is it as fast, no the SN550 is a budget drive but the added storage is a huge advantage. The Patriot drive is also very good but again over priced compared to drives of equal performance and endurance, just not as bad as the Samsung. Better options with the same performance would be the HP EX950, ADATA XPG SX8200Pro, or WD SN750. If you went with the budget option the WD SN550 is the best budget/entry level NVMe drive you can get right now. Here are the SSDs I was talking about with the two you were looking at as well for reference.
PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital SN750 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($74.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: HP EX950 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Patriot VPN100 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($82.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $612.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-10 13:13 EDT-0400
 
Solution
Jun 9, 2020
3
0
10
@jeremyj_83 many thanks for your detailed and helpful information so far. I think my final build is somewhat inspired by your wise comments. Some of the stuff you mentioned seemed very nice but i could not get it for that price shipped to me. This is the stuff i can get for 1580 Euros in my country.

Western Digital WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD 500GB, M.2

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, 6x 3.80GHz, boxed

G.Skill Aegis DIMM Kit 32GB, DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-38

ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Evo OC, ROG-STRIX-RTX2060S-O8G-EVO-GAMING, 8GB GDDR6, 2x HDMI, 2x DP, USB-C

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max

LG UltraGear 27GL850-B, 27"

Corsair RMx Series RM550x 2018, 550W ATX 2.4


I could also order the AMD unboxed for only 3 Euros less if the CPU needs an extra cooler?
I am a little confused by the adapive sync and g-sync difference, but am almost certain this monitor will take advantage of the g-sync technology.

Any addtional suggestions? Otherwise i will order that stuff tomorrow and hope its compatible. Oh right, almost forgot about a case. I will look up an ATX thing tomorrow. Im done with computer parts for today :D

All the best.
 
@jeremyj_83 many thanks for your detailed and helpful information so far. I think my final build is somewhat inspired by your wise comments. Some of the stuff you mentioned seemed very nice but i could not get it for that price shipped to me. This is the stuff i can get for 1580 Euros in my country.

Western Digital WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD 500GB, M.2

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, 6x 3.80GHz, boxed

G.Skill Aegis DIMM Kit 32GB, DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-38

ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Evo OC, ROG-STRIX-RTX2060S-O8G-EVO-GAMING, 8GB GDDR6, 2x HDMI, 2x DP, USB-C

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max

LG UltraGear 27GL850-B, 27"

Corsair RMx Series RM550x 2018, 550W ATX 2.4


I could also order the AMD unboxed for only 3 Euros less if the CPU needs an extra cooler?
I am a little confused by the adapive sync and g-sync difference, but am almost certain this monitor will take advantage of the g-sync technology.

Any addtional suggestions? Otherwise i will order that stuff tomorrow and hope its compatible. Oh right, almost forgot about a case. I will look up an ATX thing tomorrow. Im done with computer parts for today :D

All the best.
The 3600X comes with a useful cooler. The only main reason to get a new one is if it is too loud.

G-sync & FreeSync do the same thing. The biggest difference is G-Sync is proprietary to nVidia. In the newer drivers nVidia GPUs might be able to use FreeSync as well.