Black Magic Intensity pro hardware ??Help??

[ebrasive]

i am new to this website and i was wondering if anyone can help me with setting up my first computer. I am building this computer so that i can stream xbox 360 games onto twitch.tv. I plan on using the Black magic Intensity pro capture card and i want to be able to stream in with it in Hd 720p. I also want this build to be able to play games at moderate setting, such as world of warcraft. If anyone can help me with finding a good case that i can use with this and a sound card that will do what i need with it. If anything that i have is trash or non-compatible feel free to talk down about it. I plan on using a raid-0 setup with a 1Tb hard drive to back all my data.

CPU
Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz Quad-Core
CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing
Motherboard
Asus P7P55D ATX LGA1156
Memory
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Storage
Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM


Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM


Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM


Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Video Card
Diamond Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Power Supply
PC Power & Cooling 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
Optical Drive
Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit)

[pandy]

As a main rule - separate disk for system, separate for work and for capture - go for high capacity HDD's - 160GB can have to "slow" surface transfer...

[LastQuestion]

The BMIP captures losslessly or Mjpeg, both of which have rather large file sizes. Lossless capture is, impractical. So, I use Mjpeg personally. We're talking bitrates of 40-80Mbps and file sizes of 4-10Gb per match. Those 160GB HDDs will be ill-suited. I'd recommend a Western Digital Caviar Black 2tb HDD. It has the performance and capacity necessary. That's just for capture. I'd recommend a WDC Black 1tb HDD for your OS/Games/Programs.

I'd also recommend getting a 2600k instead of the 860. Sandy Bridge CPUs are easy to overclock and have better performance. With a 2600k OC'd to 4.2Ghz(excessively easy to do)you should be able to max out the compression in Xfire and have a HQ stream at even low bitrates. If I had known I'd be doing so much video encoding I would've gotten a 2600k instead of the 2500k. The time I'd save would easily be worth the $100 premium.

If you decide to get a 2600k then I'd recommend getting a p8z68-v Gen3 mobo. I've been enjoying mine for some time now and have few complaints. There may be newer models/revisions so doing more research is always worthwhile. I bought mine Nov of 2011, so there are most likely many more options now then there were when I purchased mine.

[ebrasive]

i truly appreciate both of you taking time out of your lives to help me with my pc build. I went ahead and changed to 2600k and im about to get the motherboard that you suggested. I am looking at getting (Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive) for the captured material, but i am left asking if i should get two (WD Black WD1001FALS 1TB Desktop Hard Drive - 3.5", SATA, 7200RPM, 32MB Cache) and turn them into a Raid-0 setup, or will i be fine with just having one. The reason why i ask is because a few forums that i read , all they say is to get a Raid-0 setup. Then the last question that i need help with is what should i do for a sound card? I am completely lost with those. And thankyou guys once again for helping

The setup i am looking at getting now is below and it is minus the 1tb Hdds because i dont know if i should get one or two.

CPU Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 ATX LGA1155
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Storage Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Video Card Diamond Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Power Supply PC Power & Cooling 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
Optical Drive Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit)

[LastQuestion]

i truly appreciate both of you taking time out of your lives to help me with my pc build. I went ahead and changed to 2600k and im about to get the motherboard that you suggested. I am looking at getting (Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive) for the captured material, but i am left asking if i should get two (WD Black WD1001FALS 1TB Desktop Hard Drive - 3.5", SATA, 7200RPM, 32MB Cache) and turn them into a Raid-0 setup, or will i be fine with just having one. The reason why i ask is because a few forums that i read , all they say is to get a Raid-0 setup. Then the last question that i need help with is what should i do for a sound card? I am completely lost with those. And thankyou guys once again for helping

The setup i am looking at getting now is below and it is minus the 1tb Hdds because i dont know if i should get one or two.

CPU Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 ATX LGA1155
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Storage Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Video Card Diamond Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Power Supply PC Power & Cooling 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
Optical Drive Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit)

I never really stopped to learn the differences between Raid setups, mostly due to hearing stories about how the more useful(in terms of performance) can result in losing your data if only one HDD fails. So, no idea if Raid 0 is a good idea or not. However, for a system that going to be used to capture, edit, encode, and archive video, I'd recommend having two large HDDs and storing copies of all your videos in visually lossless MP4s(CRF15 x264, and full quality AAC). With a 1tb OS drive, and 2tb drive for video editing you have enough storage on the 2tb drive to capture and store source footage(the raw avi mjpegs) and enough let over storage on the 1tb HDD to 'backup' visually lossless copies of those files.

Using an external HDD is all well and good for occasional backups, but with video editing you're constantly creating new content which means you'll be writing to that HDD quite often with very large files. External HDDs aren't well suited to that kind of work and the type of HDDs used in them tend to fail when required to function like that for extended periods of time. If you plan on capturing with FRAPS, then you'll want an additional 2tb HDD(as I've recently found out through experience) as it's fairly easy to fill up 500GB+ with one evenings worth of FRAPS footage. I, in fact, ran out of space and had to stop capturing, which is lame.

A soundcard. If you plan on playing any shooters on your PC I'd recommend getting a X-fi Titanium HD. CMSS, is commonly agreed to be superior to Dolby Headphone. If you're really into music and plan on getting a decent set of cans then a Xonar STX is ideal due to the quality of it's headphone amp and DAC. HT Omega has some nice offerings as well. If high fidelity audio and surround sound isn't that important to you onboard audio is probably sufficient, especially if you don't on getting quality headphones. eh, quality headphone would be something like HD555s or AD700s, which cost ~$100. It's important to note that those headphones are vastly superior to anything of the headsets marketed towards consoles and even the PC market. I own Astro A40s, HD555s, and AD700s, and the HD555s and AD700s are definitely better than the A40s. I didn't know how much better until I got my Xonar STX however. I had no idea the HD555s had decent bass. Even the Mixamp wasn't driving them properly.

Also, even though I have an STX I'm honestly considering getting a Titanium HD because of how much better CMSS is. Might try to install them both on the same box..recipe for disaster probably, lol. There's comparisons between CMSS and Dolby Headphone using the Titinium HD and the STX on youtube. Ah, still have that tab open: http://www.head-fi.org/t/591811/do-you-use-cmss-3d-or-dolby-headphone-for-gaming/15