Looking for a small computer to use as 2nd computer in studio

Ron Knights

Hi, I made hundreds of videos beginning in 2008. I had a couple live internet shows as well. My most popular shows were when I interviewed people who were well-known in the YouTube community. I stopped doing shows back around 2012. Now I want to start again. Back in the day, a 24" iMac and Mac Mini did the work of running the shows. Now I'm in the PC world!

I'm looking for a small computer that still has some power. I'm thinking of 16GB RAM, for instance. I want a prebuilt computer. The mini computer will handle audio and video coming from Skype. I'll be using a Behringer Xenyx 1202 Mixer for audio. Everything will run through OBS Studio. What do you think of this computer?

2020 HP EliteDesk 705 G4 Desktop Mini Computer, 
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 2400GE Processor, 16GB RAM, 
512GB SSD, AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics, Keyboard, USB Type-C, 
Windows 10 Pro, 32GB Snow Bell USB Card

https://www.amazon.com/HP-EliteDesk-Computer-Processor-Graphics/dp/B0892NCT6S/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?_encoding=UTF8&c=ts&dchild=1&keywords=Mini+Computers&qid=1604127136&refinements=p_n_feature_four_browse-bin:18107801011&rnid=676578011&s=pc&sr=1-1-spons&ts_id=13896591011&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFVUTdXTEI5UEIwR0ImZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5NTI3ODYzQkUySzlGMFRESzhJJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0MTM0ODMzSDlFUzJaRFFOTlo4JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

tj_1ca9500b

I'm trying to find a Ryzen 4000 series mini atm, but in the meantime, here's a 3400G (or GE) is the updated version of the 2400G, so it's a tiny bit faster and a generation newer, but it's not Renoir.

https://www.amazon.com/DeskMini-A300W-Desktop-2666MHz-Computer/dp/B0847T9DMY?ref_=ast_sto_dp

Edit: Ryzen 4000 series minis are almost unobtanium atm, but I found this one:

https://www.newegg.com/asus-pn50-br078zd/p/N82E16883221639

At $899, but at least it has 8 cores.

Are you absolutely determined to get a mini?  There's a few Ryzen 4000 options with a PCIe 16 slot or two available, but not in the mini form factor that I've seen in my searches so far.

cajhin

As always, very much depends on what exactly you want it to do. If a Mac Mini could handle it, probably not too much.

"Video" and "512GB" sounds suspicious, though.

I'd have a look at Intel NUCs, they might have interesting models. Intel's been working on these NUCs for years now, I expect them to be rock solid. They mostly use laptop CPUs, but something like an i5 10210u probably beats the 2400ge in many workloads.

 

kenshaw011267

There are many NUC's and that is definitely how I'd lean for a secondary streaming box. However they are usually sold as barebones systems, no RAM or storage so you'd need to buy such and install that as well.

However Ron you should be able to stream directly from your new system. It has more than enough processing power.

Ron Knights

tj_1ca9500b, thanks for the links. I've placed both of the products in their respective wishlists. When I did the live shows, I showed my own camera's video as well as the video of the call-in guest. I weas able to switch and combine video. It's very much like a TV studio. The mixer handled the audio, and provided "mix minus," so that the caller could rear the appropriate video without hearing his/her own voice. 

The original iMac was a 2007 model with a Core2 Duo CPU, and very anemic nVidia video card. (256K?!) . i retired that one because I couldn't get support for any of the software. It had very slow performance as well. The 2013 iMac died when the desk tipped over. I still have a 2009 Mac Mini with a Core2 Duo CPU. But it stopped working due to heat when the cooling fan died.

I plan to have my main computer run OBS Studio and do the show itself. The second computer will handle Skype callers.