Which is better for encoding, card or box?

[Basil]

Probably another of my naieve questions, but looking to get a better encoding on the fly setup, with a new desktop PC. I would like the option of H265 encoding. Should I look to a good video card in the PC, or one of those external boxes? The boxes seem a bit of a minefield, if a box is better is there a known source for one that works?

I really want to stay with Windows 7 64 bit Pro, very very reluctantly would I run Windows 10 and Linux is a definite no as this new PC needs to run a lot of stuff unavailable for Linux as well as my DATV apps.

Thanks for any help.

[G3GJA]

My experience, having just bought a new computer for the same job, is that a fancy graphics card is not necessary provided that you get a recent Intel CPU with a bit of grunt. I chose an Intel Core i5 10500 (10th gen)

The Intel option in the F1EJP encoding software pushes the 3D part of the GPU's performance to around 70% when using H265 on 1920 x 1080 25 frames video. The output is set to produce around 2.6Mbps which is fed to the IPTS in on the Portsdown. It barely breaks a sweat on lower symbol rates such as 333kS/s

There's nothing to be scared of in Windows 10 but plenty of concerns around the security of Windows 7, unless you never allow it to connect to the Internet.

Clive

[Basil]

Thanks for the most helpful reply Clive, I may be able to borrow a PC similar to the spec you mention, maybe a tad better, and if it works OK I can try and duplicate it.