Newbie from Indy

Saleen4971

n3wb
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Dec 2, 2019
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hey folks - found this place just an hour ago and cant wait to get started!

currently I have 5 nest cameras around (and 1 in) my house, as well as 3 cloud cams soaking up my 1TB of monthly data that Xfinity lets me have, so its time to update to something larger, better, and on-site. looking forward to building a new PC to host it all, and figuring out the ideal cameras and placement for them all in and around my house (2700 sq ft, plus garage and basement) on an acre.
 

Hammerhead786

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Welcome. Check out the Cliff Notes and the Wikis. Rather than building a pc, look on eBay for a used one along with a managed POE switch.
 

Frankenscript

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Welcome @Saleen4971 . Like Hammerhead786 says, you can do very well on ebay. I'm running 10 cameras (2-4 MP) just fine on an i5-6500 that I got from Ebay for under $300 a year and a half ago. Look for ProDesk / EliteDesk / Optiplex models. Just avoid the T and U processor variants (lower power, lower capability). I just checked and there is a boatload of them under $200 now, including at least 8GB RAM and an SSD for the OS/software (buy 4+TB hard drives for video storage, or use a NAS). These PCs generally come with Win10Pro because they are business off lease machines. Even if sold "without OS" most are already activated for Windows just fine.
 

Saleen4971

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fair enough. i have a case to use that can handle a ton of drives (10-14 IIRC) which is obviously overkill, but overkill is underrated i find.

as long as i can find something that can handle the probably 15+ cameras i will eventually be using, im all about it.
 

SouthernYankee

IPCT Contributor
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:welcome:
My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (Store | IP Cam Talk) if you need good low light cameras.
3) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
4) Do not use wifi cameras.
5) Do not use cloud storage
6) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
7) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
8) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
9) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
10) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
11) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
12) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
13) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
14) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
15) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3

Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
IPC-T5442TM-AS Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 2mp Varifocal Starlight Camera
IPC-HDW5231R-ZE Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
DS-2CD2325FWD-I
IPC-T2347G-LU Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera. (DS-2CD2347G1-LU)
N22AL12 New Dahua N22AL12 Budget Cam w/Starlight -- low cost entry

Other dahua 4MP starlight
My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A
If interested in Blue Iris and other setup items see the following post

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess
 

Saleen4971

n3wb
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thanks for the post southern - i did jump the gun and bought a ProDesk off of ebay, i7-6700 equipped with an M.2 drive, shoudl be PLENTY for what i need, once i toss a WD purple or two in there. not sure if i will add a 2nd NIC to further separate the cameras but thats further down the line.

considering grabbing a single 5442 as it seems like a phenomenal unit, and use it for testing/checking, on top of the calculator.
 

Frankenscript

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I like having the cams on a separate NIC, saves me from messing with a managed switch.

One hint: purple drives are ideal, but if you get a good deal on a 10 TB external drive (~$175) you can shuck the drive out of the enclosure and get a very good value from the price point. I have a shucked drive running as one of my hard drives. So far so good.

Edit: just checked. EasyStore 10TB $160 at Best Buy.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
 

Saleen4971

n3wb
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Dec 2, 2019
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nice choice on phone - running an A510 myself

ill be running purples for sure.

my edgerouter lite has 2 LANs, so the camera system will be run off of a different port and different network.
 
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