So, my 12-year old decided that she needed a more powerful computer for her favorite video game, Fortnite. And I promised her, years ago, that we’d find a time to custom-build her own computer.

Finally, I’ve been able to make good on my word!

The Purchase List

I wanted my daughter to lead the process end-to-end, so she was responsible for not only finding the right parts but also price-comparing them and making her ultimate “purchase list” so that we could talk through it.

We discussed the pros and cons of larger motherboards to allow for larger expansion opportunities and power consumption requirements for smaller (or more powerful) components, like the CPU or GPU.

Starting to arrive!

A little bit of math was required to ensure that we got the right PSU (Power Supply Unit) to handle her components, but it wasn’t that hard to put the master list together. What was the most fun was talking through each part and the reasons for it and why, as well as trying to maximize expected experience (such as — the end result) and the budget that I had outlined for her.

Core i5~

Our Goal and Budget

What we wanted to do was build an “epic gaming rig” specifically for Fortnite that would be able to handle near-maximum graphic settings @ 60FPS for less than $1,000. We ended up spending a bit more on peripherals like a gaming mouse and keyboard as well as headset and a nice 24" widescreen monitor. But the core computer (mid-tower) we wanted to keep below $1,000 if we could.

Time to build!

Here’s the master list of core components that we purchased…

1. CPU: Intel Core i5–8600K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.3 GHz unlocked LGA 1151 300 Series 95W
2. CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo (RR-212E-20PK-R2) CPU Cooler with PWM Fan, Four Direct Contact Heat Pipes
3. Graphics: Gigabyte AORUS Radeon RX 580 8GB Graphic Cards GV-RX580AORUS-8GD
4. Motherboard: GIGABYTE B360 HD3 (LGA1151/Intel/B360/ATX/USB 3.1 Gen 2 (USB3.1) Type A/DDR4/Motherboard)
5. RAM: Patriot Viper Elite Series DDR4 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz PC4–21300 Dual Memory Kit (Black/Grey)
6. SSD: Kingston A400 SSD 480GB SATA 3 2.5” Solid State Drive SA400S37/480G — Increase Performance
7. Power Supply: EVGA Supernova 650 G3, 80 Plus Gold 650W
8. Case: Phanteks PH-EC416PTG_BW Eclipse P400 Steel ATX Mid Tower Case Black/White,Tempered Glass Edition Cases

Most builds suggest getting a HDD, like a 1TB 7200RPM but we opted to maximize boot and load times with the SSD first. She may end up getting a more typical HDD sooner rather than later as she wants to start capturing her gameplay and even live-streaming as well.

The total cost of these 8 components ended up being $1,001!

Of course, she also needed some sweet peripherals which added to the total cost of ownership:

1. Keyboard: CORSAIR Strafe Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — Red LED Backlit — USB Passthrough — Linear and Quiet — Cherry MX Red Switch
2. Monitor: Acer XF250Q Cbmiiprx 24.5" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Zero Frame TN Gaming Monitor with AMD FREESYNC Technology — 1ms | 240Hz Refresh (Display, HDMI 2.0, HDMI 1.4 ports)
3. Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse, 12,000 DPI On-The-Fly DPI Shifting, Personalized Weight and Balance Tuning with (5) 3.6g Weights, 11 Programmable Buttons
4. Headphones: Logitech G Pro Gaming Headset with Pro Grade Mic for Pc, PC VR, Mac, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch
5. Gaming Chair: Homall Gaming Chair Racing Style High-Back PU Leather Office Chair Computer Desk Chair Executive and Ergonomic Style Swivel Chair with Headrest and Lumbar Support (White) — We ended up returning this because it wouldn’t fit in our current setup… she’ll have to figure out another seating system.

Oh, and finally, we purchased these three important things that we would definitely need:

1. Anti Static Wrist Straps — 3 Pack — Reusable Anti-Static Wrist Straps equipped with Grounding Wire and Alligator Clip — Enables you to Ground Yourself while working on Sensitive Electronics
2. ARCTIC MX-4 Thermal Compound Paste, Carbon Based High Performance, Heatsink Paste, CPU for All Coolers, Interface Material, 4 Grams with Tool
3. Windows 10 Home USB — Make sure you get the USB so you can boot to it on installation!

You’ll obviously also need some screwdrivers and a bunch of other small-ish tools that most folks already have.

Now, it was time to build:

The entire process took about 6 hours, from start to finish, which surprised me. I had planned to take most (if not all) of the morning to put it together. And, there were definitely a few moments where I thought we were either missing a component or I had thought that we had possibly purchased parts that wouldn’t work together, but, the last above was perfectly configured.

And… it booted the first time!

I’m really proud of her and she’s now having the time of her life playing her favorite game at max settings @ 60FPS and I couldn’t be happier because there’s nothing like building your own computer and then using it for the things that you love!

And yes… she learned a ton about computer hardware and software and I definitely consider this part of her hackschooling education. What a win… and seriously fun stuff.

PS: Feel free to follow my daughter on YouTube!

Originally published at John Saddington.

Twitch TV is a popular live-streaming service. You traditionally used Twitch to stream yourself playing video games, but recently Twitch has started encouraging people to stream themselves coding.

While typical video game live streaming configurations will work for live coding, they are overkill. When streaming live coding, you can get away with significantly lower settings, making it much easier for people with a slower connection to watch your live stream.

This article will show you how to configure the popular OBS (Open Broadcast Software) to keep your stream’s quality high while minimizing the bandwidth requirements for your viewers.

Note: In order to keep this article reasonably short, we will only show screen shots from the Windows version of OBS. Note that most of should be pretty much the same on Mac and Linux.

First Steps

1. You will need to download and install OBS for your platform. The OBS website is located here. I prefer OBS studio (which is the only option for non-windows users), as it is the newest version currently being developed, and appears to use bandwidth better.
2. Once installed you will want to start by setting up the scene. First you will want to make sure there is a scene inside of the left most box. This should be there by default, however if it is not just right click inside the box and select “Add -> Scene”.

Adding a new scene

3. Next you will want to capture your entire screen or just a window. The decision is up to you. I personally like to capture my full screen but I will show you both options below.

Adding a display capture

4. Once you have this set up you will want to get your microphone working so you can communicate with your audience. On windows you will want to click on the settings button > audio tab. Once here you will want to find “Mic/Auxiliary Audio Device” and use the drop down to select your input device.

Adding an input capture device

5. Now that you have the scene set up to capture your display and your microphone you need to set up a streaming service. To do this, open your settings > Stream tab. Once there, select:
   Stream Type: Streaming Services
   Service: Twitch
   Server: Choose the server closest to you
   Stream key: The stream key provided by Twitch

Setting up your streaming service

6. Next you will want to change output settings. You can do this by going to settings > output. From here you will want to select:
   Output Mode: Advanced
   Be on the “Streaming Tab”
   Bitrate: No higher than 1200. Try to match your upload speed. For example my upload speed is usually between 800Kbps-900Kbps. I have set my bitrate to 700.
   Keyframe Interval: 2 seconds
   User CBR: Check
   CPU Usage: Veryfast. This is the recommended value if you are unsure of your hardware.
   All other settings leave set to default.

Setting up your Output settings

7. Finally, you will want to check your frames per second (FPS) of your stream. Not properly configuring your FPS is probably the biggest way to waste of bandwidth when live coding. Navigate to settings > video. Once there you will want to click the dropdown “Common FPS Values” and select “Integer FPS Values”. In the input box that shows up change the 30 to 15. 15 FPS should be fine for live coding.

Setting your FPS

That should be all you need to do to set up OBS to begin live coding!

There are a few more things that you may want to do such as capture output audio to play music on stream. I will write another article about this very soon with Windows- and Mac-specific GIFs.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me on Gitter or tweet at me at @septimus98.