I wanted to share the details of my recent system upgrade, just in case anyone is wondering how much it costs to do everything yourself. I originally installed a Q-See analogue system (recording at D1 or equivalent to 480 lines) purchased from Costco, in 2012, with a replacement DVR a few years later after it got zapped during a power surge. 13 years later, the cameras were foggy, the new DVR was always terrible, I thought it was time for an upgrade.
Luckily I had to replace the old BNC cables and kept the cameras in the same spots so I used those old cable to pull new CAT6 cable. Easier said than done as a lot were getting stuck, but in the end I had 9 cameras and a working NVR with Frigate.
This is the complete list of items and the price, all amounts are in Canadian dollars and include taxes and duties. I am very happy with how it turned out and having an open source NVR was extremely important to me.
Could I have saved money? For sure, if you're on a budget you don't need an 8TB drive; I wanted to keep 24/7 recordings for two weeks, based on poor motion tracking from Q-See, but it is overkill with Frigate, you can save the events for a long period and keep the recordings with nothing interesting for a few days if you'd like. Also, I could have installed Linux on the recording hard drive if there was no place to keep the original SSD to save a few dollars, or buy a cable to allow for two SATA drives to be connected for a few dollars less. I doubt it would have affected performance. Something I did not add to the total was a new tray for the hard drive as the one that came with it was for a 2.5inch drive, but I found an STL online and 3d printed it, probably cost me 15-20 cents.
Another thing that was unecessary was a new monitor, it just so happen that my home server and the Dell had DisplayPort but the home server had no HDMI, and all the monitors I have at home or I could find on Marketplace had DVI and HDMI, no DisplayPort.
I also purchased CAT6 cable that resists UV light since a few cameras are facing the sun during the day, but the cables are well hidden so it was probably not necessary. That said, I would not have saved much with a regular bare copper CAT6 cable, so it's a cheap insurance that the cable won't rot.
Finally, the Klein tool worked really well, but perhaps the cheap $25 tools with random names on Amazon would have worked just as well, we'll never know, but having to terminate ethernet cables on top of a ladder, I wanted something that I know works the first time.
Why 2 POE switches? It was cheaper than a 16 port switch, and originally I had planned for 8 cameras so I bought another one later.
Would I recommend this? Yes, if you're willing to put the time to learn Frigate, it was more expensive than the Lorex and company kits you can find online and at Costco, but I have room for expansion and full control over the system and the software.
Price will vary a lot based on the cameras you're buying and whether you can DIY your house wiring or hire a pro do to it, but that's true for any system except wifi.
Luckily I had to replace the old BNC cables and kept the cameras in the same spots so I used those old cable to pull new CAT6 cable. Easier said than done as a lot were getting stuck, but in the end I had 9 cameras and a working NVR with Frigate.
This is the complete list of items and the price, all amounts are in Canadian dollars and include taxes and duties. I am very happy with how it turned out and having an open source NVR was extremely important to me.
| Dell OptiPlex 3050 SFF (i5-7500) | $137.84 |
| SSD (NVMe because the Dell came with an old SATA SSD but only one cable and no room for expansion), SanDisk, 250GB | $45.98 |
| Coral AI chip (Mini PCIe) | $75.64 |
| Mini PCIe to PCIe adaptor | $14.71 |
| Network Card (for the VLAN), no-name, RealTek chip | $16.77 |
| Western Digital Purple hard drive - 8TB - found new old stock on eBay | $227.98 |
| 2 x POE Switch (TP-Link, 8+1) | $140.21 |
| CAT6 cable (bare copper, rated exterior and UV), 500 feet | $217.19 |
| CAT6 - RJ45 termination tool - Passthrough - Klein | $86.32 |
| RJ45 Pass-through connectors (50 in package) | $30.92 |
| 9 x Cameras (Dahua IPC-HFW2449S-S-IL) | $867.79 |
| Kaulking | $8.96 |
| Computer monitor (1920x1080; D-Port) | $142.83 |
| Gaffer tape for exterior (to hide the white cables on dark brick) | $27.97 |
Total | $2,041.11 |
Could I have saved money? For sure, if you're on a budget you don't need an 8TB drive; I wanted to keep 24/7 recordings for two weeks, based on poor motion tracking from Q-See, but it is overkill with Frigate, you can save the events for a long period and keep the recordings with nothing interesting for a few days if you'd like. Also, I could have installed Linux on the recording hard drive if there was no place to keep the original SSD to save a few dollars, or buy a cable to allow for two SATA drives to be connected for a few dollars less. I doubt it would have affected performance. Something I did not add to the total was a new tray for the hard drive as the one that came with it was for a 2.5inch drive, but I found an STL online and 3d printed it, probably cost me 15-20 cents.
Another thing that was unecessary was a new monitor, it just so happen that my home server and the Dell had DisplayPort but the home server had no HDMI, and all the monitors I have at home or I could find on Marketplace had DVI and HDMI, no DisplayPort.
I also purchased CAT6 cable that resists UV light since a few cameras are facing the sun during the day, but the cables are well hidden so it was probably not necessary. That said, I would not have saved much with a regular bare copper CAT6 cable, so it's a cheap insurance that the cable won't rot.
Finally, the Klein tool worked really well, but perhaps the cheap $25 tools with random names on Amazon would have worked just as well, we'll never know, but having to terminate ethernet cables on top of a ladder, I wanted something that I know works the first time.
Why 2 POE switches? It was cheaper than a 16 port switch, and originally I had planned for 8 cameras so I bought another one later.
Would I recommend this? Yes, if you're willing to put the time to learn Frigate, it was more expensive than the Lorex and company kits you can find online and at Costco, but I have room for expansion and full control over the system and the software.
Price will vary a lot based on the cameras you're buying and whether you can DIY your house wiring or hire a pro do to it, but that's true for any system except wifi.
