Mini-ITX, SteamOS and YouTube.

Hello everyone!

First I feel I should congratulate both Steam and Windows (regardless of some opinions on the latter). Steam for achieving a new record of 13 million users playing concurrently and Windows 10 for its use in a third of all Steam gaming PCs. This fluffy introduction is somewhat relevant to the post so don't worry...

I am in the process of building myself a budget ITX rig, the parts are not really up for debate here as I have chosen what I have chosen (call me a fanboy if you will but someone needs to support AMD even if its to my own cost).

Purchased;
AMD A10-7870K
MSI A88XI AC V2 FM2+
Corsair Vengeance Pro Series Red (2x4gb at 2400, CAS 11) (cheapest 8gb set on Scan.. colour is a happy coincidence)
Be Quiet! BN226 SFX Power 2 300W

Lying around;
160GB hdd (tiny I know but it should be enough for my plans)
Cardboard PC case made from MB box
CD drive (installation purposes - possibly)
Recording peripherals

Right, I plan on using something akin to SteamOS (aka free) for this build, simply to keeps costs as low as possible.. I am a uni student you see... anyway, I plan to make YT gameplay videos. I know, I know, exactly what YT needs more of. But don't worry I'm not expecting to become the next Pewdiepie. So, In a long winded way, I'm asking for advice on YT recording in relation to various OSs (I am open to buying Windows) and what I'll be able to get the best out of my hardware in terms of driver power... AMD not so good with Linux based OS?

I also want to know if you guys think and upgrade to an SSD (probably not a lot bigger than the 160 HDD I already have) would be worth the expenditure at some-point, as well as anything else you think I should know.

Also, moderators, I realise after writing, that this is most likely in completely the wrong section so do your thing if you feel necessary!

Thanks all.

SteamOS wants to install onto a minimum of 1TB hard drive. I have installed it onto a 500GB drive, but it needed some hassle.

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AMD not so good with Linux based OS?

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Swings and roundabouts, Nvidia are hardly covering themselves in roses atm and it is looking like there may never be open source support for the 900 series cards.

Some games there is a drop in performance compared to Windows, in some the performance is awful. But the cost is free to try it, so give it a go.

If it doesn't work for you, that begs the question: do you spend £80 on a copy of Windows, or on a GTX 750 graphics card?

Edit to add: looks like you can get OBS for Linux/SteamOS for your recording needs.

The "Custom Installation" of SteamOS -> http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown <- (bottom of page) says "works on a smaller disk", referring to the 1TB drive.. so, is "smaller disk" a specific size?

Also, PSU may be up for change. I quite like the Be Quiet! brand but I am open for suggestions however, I'm currently unsure if I should get the TFX or SFX 300w suppply.. the 400w would give be more upgrade choice GPU wise in the future however this is not a main build, more of a experiment/fun/for away from home build.
TFX version - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/300w-...ables-erp-2014
SFX Version - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/300w-...-pci-e-erp2014

OBS? I'll have to look into that... whatever it is? I'm completely amateur at this!

Thanks for the reply

Unless motherboard boxes have vastly inflated in size since the last one I bought that'll be a pretty small case, I think you'd struggle to fit a graphics card, SFX PSU or CD drive in there.

The smallest PSU form factor defined in the standard is Flex ATX which I believe is 4cm x 8cm x 15cm. You might squeeze in that 4cm thickness above some part of the motherboard.

OBS is Open Broadcaster Software, a popular bit of streaming software.

£50 for a PSU on a budget?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/therm...h-220w-sfx-psu

I have one with an old Atom board in it. Downside is it will only take a low profile graphics card if you ever go that route. Plus side, compact, cheap and not pug ugly.

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Originally Posted by EndlessWaves

Unless motherboard boxes have vastly inflated in size since the last one I bought that'll be a pretty small case, I think you'd struggle to fit a graphics card, SFX PSU or CD drive in there.

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It involves a fair bit of box cutting but it'll do (I saw it on a YT video a while back). The CD drive will only be attached for any software installation I may need it for, the rest of the time it'll remain where it is now I.E boxed up, under a bed and 50 miles away. I don't plan on using a graphics card, for now at least, so I should be okay. If I am, I'll post pics ;) if not... I won't...

I think a 220W PSU might be on the low side, especially as I might bump up the clock speeds a fraction. I realise the ITX board isn't great at this and I only have around 80W to play with AND I'd need a cooler upgrade if I was to go down this route more than a 100/200 Mhz..

Thanks for the feed back though guys!

One more thing, would 8gb of ram be enough for gameplay and capture? I've really no idea how taxing capture actually is...

I think capture is more CPU bound than ram. My son, under Windows, uses OBS on an old AMD 955BE machine with 8GB of DDR2. Unless you are playing a game that already has the APU on its knees, you should be OK.

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

I think capture is more CPU bound than ram. My son, under Windows, uses OBS on an old AMD 955BE machine with 8GB of DDR2. Unless you are playing a game that already has the APU on its knees, you should be OK.

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Ahh thank you! Well I'll be playing a lot of KSP which is CPU intensive.. but I should be able to manage. Funnily enough my rig at home has a 955BE and can cope with KSP plus capture and that processor is weaker according to CPU Boss. Though it does have a R9 280X strapped to it... not that that makes a difference to CPU bound KSP and capture.

Thanks for the help!