PC drives

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Col8

Getting the hang of it
Jul 31, 2017
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I've just ordered a PC that I'm going to use to run CCTV SW. Maybe blue iris.

I was wondering people's advice on the best drive for constant writing the video files. I also wondered if it would have a benefit to have 2 drives. One for the CCTV software and the other dedicated for the recorded video files.

Many thanks.
 
I’d always recommend an SSD for the OS with a normal large drive to write clips to as a minimum.

I’ve got an SSD for the OS and the BI software and 2 hard drives onto which the video clips get saved.
 
^^ this.
SSD for Windows 10, BI and BI's "db" (database) folder; video clips to a surveillance-rated hard drive such as a WD Purple or equivalent.
 
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Thanks guys that's what I suspected. Really appreciate it. I just got myself a second hand Dell Optiplex i7 4790. It's god a 500gb hard drive, but think I'll get an SSD for the OS and BI as you recommend. Then a purple or a knighthawk.

How big an SSD do I need. Not too much I guess.
 
I'm pretty sure there have been pro and con discussions on here but I'm happy with my decision. I have been running 2 4TB WD purple drives with cameras split between the drives to make usage relatively equal. Today one of the drives failed and I'm happy I split my cams between 2 drives because I only lost recorded video on half my cameras. Since I get a month storage with my system I was able to move the cams from the failed drive to the working drive and have everything working until I get my replacement drive installed.
 
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Asking how big a drive is like asking how long is a piece of rope. It all depends on if you're recording 24/7, camera resolutions, bit rate and iframe rate of each camera. I'd plan on a minimum of 4GB and 8GB wouldn't hurt at all.
 
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Col8 said:
I've just ordered a PC that I'm going to use to run CCTV SW. Maybe blue iris.

I was wondering people's advice on the best drive for constant writing the video files. I also wondered if it would have a benefit to have 2 drives. One for the CCTV software and the other dedicated for the recorded video files.

Many thanks.
Click to expand...

WD purple drives are designed specifically for 24x7 surveillance applications, so perhaps a SSD for the OS and apps' and a WD purple drive where the CCTV footage is streamed and stored...
 
Many thanks this is really helpful.

Would an external drive connect via use perform ok for writing the video files and use the internal SSD for the OS and BI?
 
I’d personally avoid having a drive connected via USB, USB3 has OK transfer rates but quickly grinds to a halt when multiple requests to read/write are made.
 
I think the dell Optiplex has a hard drive and optical drive . I guess I could remove the optical drive and add a second drive? I'm still waiting for delivery of the PC so I haven't opened it to check
 
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I have an Optiplex 7020, I have 2 hard drives, 1 SSD, and an optical drive.
 
gwminor48 said:
I have an Optiplex 7020, I have 2 hard drives, 1 SSD, and an optical drive.
Click to expand...
Brilliant. The one I've ordered is small form factor. Is yours the same form form factor? If so that's great as it means I can cram some more in ;)
 
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Col8 said:
Brilliant. The one I've ordered is small form factor. Is yours the same form form factor? If so that's great as it means I can cram some more in ;)
Click to expand...

No, sorry mine is a full size, didn't realize yours was SFF. That will be a challenge, I hear space is pretty tight in those SFF Dells.
 
I seem to remember somewhere I saw a caddy that can replace the main drive and you can insert two 2.5 inch drives. If that's a thing that might be the way to go
 
If you are using a complete disk for large video file storage continuous recording, I recommend formatting the disk, with a windows cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte). This is a increase from the 4K default. This will reduce the physical number of disk write, decrease the disk fragmentation, speed up access.

I use WD purple drive. I use a 240 GB SSD for the OS, a 120GB would also work. I use a Samsung 860 EVO.
 
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I've not heard if that. Does it have any downsides
 
The down side of using a large cluster size is writing small files to the disk. A 1 byte file will take 1 Megabyte of space. That is why this is for large files. All my video files are over 1 Gigabyte .
 
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