Van's Aircraft RV-7

Build Log

Streaming Computer Purchased

I am buying a computer for a purpose I never envisioned: live streaming. I planned on recording the build process for my records, but plans change.

I created my Twitch account on 27 March 2018, and since then I have spent many hours consuming content, so when it came time to purchase my own streaming computer, I should have had unlimited resources and knowledge, right? Well, not exactly. Nobody I watched really did anything close to what I wanted; the majority were gamers. I only needed a computer that would take a 1080p video source, add a couple overlays, add some audio, and ship it off to the internet. In addition to that, it would be in my garage turned on 24/7 while I was building and painting an airplane; what kind of computer could do that? I finally decided that I didn’t need a video card necessarily, and that I would record at the same resolution I streamed at, so I wouldn’t be encoding everything twice. Peripherals? Well, those were a bit easier because after consuming thousands of hours of content, I knew what I liked; the same went for software.

Knowing that the stream would be 1080p, I wanted a decent, nice, but also inexpensive 1080p monitor. I did a lot of research and finally decided that a BenQ GW2780 27" Backlit LED IPS Monitor would be perfect. I have never owned a BenQ monitor, but the specifications and reviews were great.

At a previous job we had Intel NUC computers mounted on the wall near televisions to display dashboards for important things. The BenQ GW2780 has a VESA mount on the back. I bet I could find one with a decent enough CPU to stream, but that wasn’t prohibitively expensive (hah, I’m building a plane and worried about the cost of a computer). The NUC 10 BXNUC10i7FNKN1 has a Intel Core i7-10710U CPU which is 4.7 GHz, 6 cores, and 12 threads. That should be plenty. In addition it can support 64 GB of RAM and has an M.2 slot. Video out is an HDMI 2.0b and there are 4 USB 3 ports (3x USB-A and 1x USB-C). The computer itself is 4.5 inches by 4.5 inches by 2 inches – nice and small.

Now that I had a monitor and a computer, it was time to add a hard drive and RAM. Unfortunately it only takes laptop RAM so it was more expensive, I ended up with two sticks of Kingston 8GB DDR4. An M.2 hard drive was another thing I had never purchased yet, but they were fairly simple. I only needed probably 100GB but it never hurts to have some extra, a WD BLACK SN850 NVMe M.2 2280 500GB and I was set.

For a keyboard and mouse I finally wanted wireless; being in the garage the ability to walk around was going to be important. Logitech has always been good to me and they had a new wireless keyboard and mouse set that looked interesting: MX Keys Mini and MX Anywhere 3. With two devices already on Bluetooth and a headset still on the list, I wanted a nice USB Bluetooth dongle so everything didn’t run off its own wireless one or the internal Bluetooth chip. A Maxuni USB Mini Bluetooth 5.0 Dongle went to the front USB port.

I could have gone with a lavalier microphone, but I wasn’t a fan of having a wire hanging around to get caught on something or wound up in a power tool. There was also the option of a headset, but after gaming and work from home for a few years, I have found that the audio quality isn’t fantastic, and I tend to whack the microphone on things all the time. Headset and microphone it was, and probably a decent camera. The headphones needed to be comfortable for 1,000+ hours, have good audio, decently long battery life, and that was about it. The Sony WH-1000XM4 fit the requirements really well; even though the price was a bit expensive, reviews were so overwhelmingly positive it wasn’t really a hard decision. Knowing so many live streamers really helped with the microphone and camera choice. Elgato has incredible products and they are reasonably priced. I got lucky and they announced their first camera right before I went to purchase gear. A Wave:3 microphone and Facecam rounded out the setup nicely.

Naturally there are a few miscellaneous items that need purchased when building a new computer, and this one was no different. I had 3 USB-A ports and I now had four items to plug in, with three more that needed plugged in occasionally to be charged. A pair of Tripp Lite 4-Port Powered USB hubs expanded my capabilities beautifully. The other necessity was being able to move the camera and microphone around the garage. Three 10 foot USB-A extension cables would let me move things almost without restriction in a 20 foot by 20 foot garage. Unless I wanted the camera and microphone to be sitting on the ground, they needed tripods, and Manfrotto delivered with a perfect pair; I couldn’t have asked for better. The last thing on the list was an Elgato Stream Deck. This would allow me to better control the computer and the live streaming software from the other side of the garage without having to go through the hassle of using a mouse or keyboard.

I had originally bought a pair of Elgato Wave Arms to mount the Facecam and Wave:3 and they were incredible. Unfortunately with the way my worktables were designed and built, the mounting clamps were not large enough and they ended up replaced with the Manfrotto tripods. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the Wave Arms, they just weren’t for me.

Computer:

Peripherals:

Extras: