On the market for an intel CPU

M

macster2075

Getting the hang of it
Oct 1, 2021
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US
Hi,
I don't know much about intel cpu's so I need some help.
I found an i5-6500 system with 8gb ram for about $150
I also found an i7-6700 with about same hardware for about $80 more.

My question is - is the i7-6700 worth the extra expense or should I save money and get the i5-6500?
I have a total of 6 1080p cameras... possibly adding more later..not likely, but it's a possibility.

How many cameras can the i5 handle vs the i7?
 
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Thanks.. I have seen that post which is the reason I am asking.. both cpu's in question are listed there, but Im a bit confused as to which would be the best buy.
 
I apologize.. maybe I needed to be a bit more clear. I know the i7 is faster than the i5...my question is with regards to the $80 difference between the two.
Is spending an extra $80 worth it?.. is it a big noticeable difference between the two cpu's?

I don't mean in specs.. and I mean in real life usage.
 
The difference will be noticeable under load, especially if you use DeepStack AI with Blue Iris. Personally, I'd look for the i7-6700K if you can squeeze that into your budget.
 
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I get that the i7 would perform better..but is it a 5% increase..10 or 20?..
because if it's only 5-10% I wouldn't spend $80-100 more for that small boost.
 
The number of cores and threads also comes into play with multiple processes running. It would be a little more future proof as well. You may be better served just buying a used, off lease, machine from Dell, HP or Lenovo. You can bet the whole ball of wax, CPU, memory, Win10/Pro and a M2 boot drive in an even newer processor for a few more bucks than an i7-6700K for example.
 
yeah, what Im buying is used. Just on a budget, so I want to spend wisely. If I'm only getting ~5% boost on the i7 for an extra $80, to me is not worth it.
 
It's not just the boost, it's the extra cores and threads. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. An off lease system is better than rolling your own for Blue Iris, especially with the price of chips today.
 
How many cameras MAX could you see yourself setting up in the next... say... three years? I see you said you know nothing about CPUs but do you think its a remote possibility you might actually want to learn this stuff in the not so distant future and set up AI on your system to detect objects. I can tell you right now motion detection is about worthless by its self.

From my personal experience I would go all out and spend the money now. Because there is a pretty good chance you will end up spending it later anyway. I bought a i5 6500 optiplex SFF with 1 drive bay and m.2... Now its in my guest room on the floor replaced by a HP elite desk 800 G4 SFF w/ i5 8500 which has 3 drive bays plus m.2 slots for $305 I also installed the Nvidia Quadro P400 I originally bought for the optiplex for $100 for AI object detection, then I ended up buying a i7 8700 for $200 cuz I figured I could sell the i5 8500 for around $140.

I ended up buying 2 sets of 9 cams... Thats how being on a budget ends up, at least for me, I originally bought junk 2k dahua domes. Now I replaced them all with 5442's.

I thought I would possibly have 9 cams max. Now I have 10 and I could see myself possibly getting 2 more.
 
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My max budget is $250. So you guys are saying the i7-6700 would be the best bang for buck at that price?
I was thinking another possibility of getting the i5 and upgrading the RAM with the extra money.
 
macster2075 said:
Right.. I would understand that.. but is it a $80 noticeable difference?.. is it worth spending that much more for that difference in performance?
Click to expand...

Hi @macster2075

" .. Is spending an extra $80 worth it? .. is the i7-6700 worth the extra expense or should I save money and get the i5-6500 .. "

it really depends on your financial situation and how close ( your setup would be ) to maxing out the CPU performance of the system.

Some I know have no issues dropping $80 to feed their family at a fast food joint .. others I know are upset when the $1 items are gone .. so you'll have to decide.
 
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As long as you do the EVERY optimization in the wiki, you can get buy with a lessor machine if that is all your budget allows.

A member here was running a 4th gen with 50 cams at 30% CPU.

I have more cameras than you, but less than 50 LOL on a 4th gen and BI is 10% and that is with cameras in the 2MP to 8MP range. I also run DeepStack and OpenALPR with two cameras feeding it. Total idle is sub 20%. I did just install a $100 GPU to speed up DeepStack, but it was fine without it. OpenALPR is the CPU hog in my system, not BI. BI with every camera triggering is 20%ish CPU.

Obviously spend more if you can afford it, but you can certainly make an older machine capable by doing the optimizations.

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 ipcamtalk.com
 
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knowing what I know now, If i was getting 6th Gen CPu, I'd go for the i7. The 8 thread 4 core cpu will push more Camera footage than the 4 thread 4 core CPU.
That being said, the 8th Gen i5 has 6 cores, and is a whole different animal.
 
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Flintstone61 said:
knowing what I know now, If i was getting 6th Gen CPu, I'd go for the i7. The 8 thread 4 core cpu will push more Camera footage than the 4 thread 4 core CPU.
That being said, the 8th Gen i5 has 6 cores, and is a whole different animal.
Click to expand...
The other issue I am facing is because of my internet limitation due to the fact that live in the country side.. only have max of 10 Mbps upload, so I cannot run more than 6 cameras without it causing an issue with bandwidth. I also work from home so that uses bandwidth as well and have people streaming videos and online gaming..so yeah, I am very limited... this is why I doesn't make sense for me to spend more into a faster cpu when I can't really utilize it's capabilities due to my limitations. I also found an i7-4770 which is a lot cheaper as well... but, I am leaning more towards the i5-6500 and save those $100 and use it for something else.
 
You should have your cameras isolated from the internet by either a dual NIC or VLAN. Keep the cameras off of the router.

When you log in remotely with UI3 or the app, it is using the substream which is a fraction of the total bandwidth of the cameras.
 
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wittaj said:
You should have your cameras isolated from the internet by either a dual NIC or VLAN. Keep the cameras off of the router.

When you log in remotely with UI3 or the app, it is using the substream which is a fraction of the total bandwidth of the cameras.
Click to expand...
These are Wyze Cams which do not have a substream option :(
 
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