48% off @ dellrefurbished.com

[Mike A.]

Earth Day Deal: 48% off any item in stock (excl. Clearance, Warranties, and Previous sales), free ground ship - use coupon code: EARTHDAY48. End Fri 4/23, 9 AM CDT

An OK deal on the i5-6500 Mini Towers @ ~$165-$200 and they have a bunch e.g.:

Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT

Not a lot else for i5 or better at the moment but things come and go there. Might watch for other deals.

 

[botics]

For 32 channels?

 

[The Automation Guy]

For 32 channels?

The cameras (really the resolution, frame rate, and bit rate) have more to do with your answer than anything else. 32 channels of 4k material is obviously more taxing than 32 channels of D1 resolution material.

That being said, I doubt any of these older i5 computers with 4gb or less of RAM are going to be adequate for 32 cameras. You can always split them into two or more BI machines however. You don't have to run all 32 on the same computer.

 

[wittaj]

There are not any currently above when I just checked, but a member here has an i7-4790 with 50 cameras running in the 30% CPU range.

If you follow every optimization wiki, you can make an older unit very capable, especially using the substreams option.

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[botics]

Buggiest issue I have is locating the right PC. Wiki is great but by the time I break it all down on a machine for sale I end up loosing it as it has sold.

 

[wittaj]

@botics - I assume you have seen the hardware wiki as well that has the ebay links to the various generation computers?

It comes down to your budget. The larger the budget, the better generation computer you can get.

To me, main keys would be intel chip, 16GB RAM, WIN 10 PRO, 125GB SSD and then supply your own HDD for storage. Or if you find an 8GB RAM machine cheap, then buy another 8GB of RAM to put in it.

A 4th generation with 32 cameras will run a higher CPU% than a 10th generation. But with substreams and using the computer for nothing else, a 4th generation would suffice. But if you have the budget, I would try to get a more recent generation.

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris

Buy refurbished. Don't build or buy new. The most cost-effective Blue Iris computers are refurbished business-class systems such as "HP EliteDesk" and "Dell OptiPlex". You can usually get a good deal by searching [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']Ebay[/URL] for specific CPU model numbers, and...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[botics]

I agree latest generation is what I want with maybe 32 gigs?

 

[wittaj]

If you have the budget, then yes, but 16GB should be fine.

 

[sdkid]

I agree latest generation is what I want with maybe 32 gigs?

That's overkill for most of what BI does. It WILL definitely help you when exporting clips (intense CPU usage then-- mine pegs out at 100% until done), but normal recording won't really benefit from all the extra money you'll spend for the latest and greatest.

Check it out--- My BI machine, running a screen grab with the BI console open and done in a Remote Desktop session showing the properties page in Windows so you can see how it is equipped. An old I5-4th gen with 8GB and six cams-- often running down around 5% CPU. Of course, the overhead of a UI3 web session, + RD, + the BI Console bumped it to 13%.

 

[OgRoar]

There are not any currently above when I just checked, but a member here has an i7-4790 with 50 cameras running in the 30% CPU range.

If you follow every optimization wiki, you can make an older unit very capable, especially using the substreams option.

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

That's overkill for most of what BI does. It WILL definitely help you when exporting clips (intense CPU usage then-- mine pegs out at 100% until done), but normal recording won't really benefit from all the extra money you'll spend for the latest and greatest.

Check it out--- My BI machine, running a screen grab with the BI console open and done in a Remote Desktop session showing the properties page in Windows so you can see how it is equipped. An old I5-4th gen with 8GB and six cams-- often running down around 5% CPU. Of course, the overhead of a UI3 web session, + RD, + the BI Console bumped it to 13%.

View attachment 87728

Are these stats with Deepstack going and if so how many images is sending?

 

[wittaj]

The member running 50 cameras on the 4th generation was posted a couple months ago before DeepStack integration.

Most users experiences here with the now BI DeepStack integration is that it hasn't resulted in significant bumps in CPU usage, but I do not think anyone has experienced a blizzard yet with this new integration to see what happens if a lot of cameras are pinging it all night.

From my experience, I had fairly decent motion settings on my "dumb" cameras, so DeepStack is being used in my case to further define when I get alerts and I haven't seen a significant jump in my 4th generation. I let my cameras with AI do that work and let BI pull those ONVIF triggers.

I haven't tested it, but I would think if someone tried to run 50 cameras on a 4th generation and did simple motion detection at a make time of 0.00 and the smallest object and contrast size in order to send EVERY motion to DeepStack, the CPU would probably jump, but would probably do so on a newer computer as well. But to the person that dials motion detection in to something reasonable, I would suspect the system could handle it.

 

[sdkid]

The member running 50 cameras on the 4th generation was posted a couple months ago before DeepStack integration.

Most users experiences here with the now BI DeepStack integration is that it hasn't resulted in significant bumps in CPU usage, but I do not think anyone has experienced a blizzard yet with this new integration to see what happens if a lot of cameras are pinging it all night.

From my experience, I had fairly decent motion settings on my "dumb" cameras, so DeepStack is being used in my case to further define when I get alerts and I haven't seen a significant jump in my 4th generation. I let my cameras with AI do that work and let BI pull those ONVIF triggers.

I haven't tested it, but I would think if someone tried to run 50 cameras on a 4th generation and did simple motion detection at a make time of 0.00 and the smallest object and contrast size in order to send EVERY motion to DeepStack, the CPU would probably jump, but would probably do so on a newer computer as well. But to the person that dials motion detection in to something reasonable, I would suspect the system could handle it.

Yup!

Are these stats with Deepstack going and if so how many images is sending?

Yeah--- I am not running DeepStack-- have not had any time to even look at it to see how it works. If I were building a new machine right now, I would probably look for a bargain 7th or 8th gen machine. I wouldn't spend the extra money--possibly double the $$ for the latest processor (11th gen now), because I don't think there is enough of a cost-benefit ratio there to make it worthwhile (to ME).

Of course-- someone else may see the benefit for the way they are setting up their system... No worries from me on that, it's still a free country until President Harris takes over. I just didn't want anyone new to this thinking that it is NECESSARY to have the best processor in a BI machine. @fenderman has hit on this many times-- surprised he hasn't popped in here to note the same thing.

 

[botics]

That's overkill for most of what BI does. It WILL definitely help you when exporting clips (intense CPU usage then-- mine pegs out at 100% until done), but normal recording won't really benefit from all the extra money you'll spend for the latest and greatest.

Check it out--- My BI machine, running a screen grab with the BI console open and done in a Remote Desktop session showing the properties page in Windows so you can see how it is equipped. An old I5-4th gen with 8GB and six cams-- often running down around 5% CPU. Of course, the overhead of a UI3 web session, + RD, + the BI Console bumped it to 13%.

View attachment 87728

Love the name

 

[botics]

I do not see myself going over 26 cameras but I would not mind a little extra under the hood.

 

[Flintstone61]

That's a good deal. IMO I'd be happy with that 6th gen i7. they do a great job in BI. I'm running an i7 3770 machine and an i5 8500 machine. They both run my 14 cameras no problem. What really made a big difference in system responsiveness ( in my case) was the addition of a wd 8TB surveillance drive. I found out recently that my 6TB WD EZAZ is a SMR ( Shingled Magnetic recording) drive which explains why it seemed to hesitate and lag while multi-tasking with viewing previous nights clips. WD Purple and Seagate Surveillance drives use the CMR ( Conventional Magnetic Recording) on the surveillance drives.

 

[Mike A.]

Yeah, they'll have some good deals now and then. I got a 7040 tower same config with one 256 SSS and a 500MB drive for about the same price a while back.

Bought quite a few machines from there over the years and even the B stock has always been in very good shape. You can find better for less on ebay if you hunt but Dell's refurb site is an easy, reliable pick up when you need something.

 

[Flintstone61]

Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF i7-6700 3.4GHz 8GB 256GB M.2 SSD - Win 10 | eBay
$279

 

[Flintstone61]

Small | Dell Refurbished

Laptops Starting at $199 & Desktops $99. Buy Dell Refurbished Computers, Laptops, Desktops and more - Includes Dell Warranty.

www.dellrefurbished.com

$499

 

[Mike A.]

Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF i7-6700 3.4GHz 8GB 256GB M.2 SSD - Win 10 | eBay
$279

That's the same machine that I have but in the tower form. Forgot mine was M.2. More important to have in the Dell SFF since drive space is more limited. It's been a good BI box. No complaints I can think of.

 

[NoDak]

So I was thinking since I don't want to run another desktop on my crowded desk, was thinking of adding a poweredge rack server to take over BI duties and emby server in one.

On the refurb site they list Xeon e-2124, 8gb udimm ram (easy to swap in 32gb from current BI server), 1tb 7200 sata & spare empty bay, dvd drive for $647. Looks like the specs show full height x8 PCI 3 and low profile x4 PCI 3 slot. This is perfect for my GTX 1070 and 10gb nic which I have a LP adapter backplate.

The question is, is it worth it spec wise to just go with a used i7 or i9 10gen cpu from the Dell refurb site.


Edit: nevermind the rack servers you cannot install a full height double slot gpu.

Either I go 3rd party rack case with a riser card for the pci-x16 slot or just find a refurb desktop case.