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A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

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Good laptop to use as Owncast server? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Apologies if this post ain't right for this community! I'm admittedly not interested in self-hosting myself, but I've a close buddy who's wanting to get back to streaming, but rightfully hates Amazon. He's wanting to self-host with Owncast to do video streaming with his pals, but lives in a very small flat with very little free space - hence the request for a laptop.

Ideally he's needing something great for video encoding, and Linux friendly to boot. No Windows. Mate's got a budget of ~£1,000.

If there's a better community for this lemme know!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is he planning to also use the laptop as a laptop?

If not, there are small form factor PCs (especially if you're willing to buy used business stuff) that don't take up a lot of space that can be good options. Laptops have some features that are kind of nice on a server as well (the battery becomes a backup against power outages and you don't need to remote access or plug stuff in to use it because it has a built in display and keyboard), but I don't think they're so nice that it's usually worth buying a laptop just for that purpose. It's more a reason that repurposing an old one makes sense. If you're willing to pay the premium a new laptop adds, you can get some pretty low profile units.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

He's just using it for streaming, figured it having a built in screen would help significantly with the limited space in his flat.

[–] recursive_recursion 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

with a $1000 budget they might want to consider building a computer as desktops usually provide better performance/per cost rather than buying a $1000 laptop

desktop pcs can also be small if a small form-factor like ITX or mini-ITX is chosen (although mini-ITX can be pricey)

building is incredibly easy as there's a plethora of tutorial vids online and you're less likely to get screwed over by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or retailer

diy vs. buying a pre-built

the fediverse here also has an active community for support [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: [email protected]

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The one caveat to building is if you build a PC and a single component is faulty, you are now responsible for determining which component is to get the RMA done. That can be a big hassle. One time for me it was actually two different components that needed to be replaced by the manufacturers, and that was a pain to figure out.

[–] recursive_recursion 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

that is definitely true however the added benefit is typically a longer warranty range as buying a laptop would typically mean that all components would be sold under a single flat warranty cycle/deadline

plus even if your computer is borked, you can still take it into a microcenter, memoryexpress, brick-and-mortor retailer to have their technicians figure it out the problem for a cost

I often have these time vs cost tradeoff discussions with my customers after they've been informed on the basics

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Is he doing transcoding on the hardware itself?

If so, despite their current shits-on-fire stuff, it's really hard to beat Intel QSV.

In any case, do not rely on AMD's VCE if you care at all about quality, because right now it's still awful.

QSV, nvenc, or do it on the CPU with x264/265.

(Not a specific laptop recommendation, but just a AMD-still-kinda-has-a-deficiency-here post.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ideally he's needing something great for video encoding, and Linux friendly to boot.

What's the plan here, using the laptop for gaming and streaming, or only using the laptop as the streaming machine?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Just using it as a streaming machine.