Blue Iris Hardware Recommendations

[bubbajoe2112]

I don't think it's high at all for 30FPS on 9 cams. No and yes and yes...

23MP at 30 FPS, 3MP at 15 FPS....

 

[bp2008]

It does sound a little high for a 735 MP/s load on an i7-8700. Where do you get your CPU usage measurement from? There are a lot of ways to measure. Blue Iris's CPU readout reports the combined CPU usage of all processes on the system. If you look at the Blue Iris process directly in Task Manager, there is some variance between the Processes tab and Details tab (Details tab is often several % lower). And Blue Iris also creates some load in the "System" and "System interrupts" processes which is easy to overlook.

I'm running 660 MP/s right now on an i7-3770K at stock speed with the total system load at about 42%. BlueIris.exe by itself according to Task Manager's Details tab is 32%, while "System" and "System interrupts" together contribute about 3-4% more.

I would expect the i7-8700 to be able to handle 735 MP/s with 20-25% reported for BlueIris.exe on Task Manager > Details tab.

 

[bubbajoe2112]

I'm getting the CPU usage from task manager, but I forgot that I had the console running (minimized). With the console not running, it's 27%-30%.

And FYI, on my BI console, the reported CPU usage is always lower than the total CPU usage reported by TM. In fact, the CPU usage reported by the BI console matches with what TM reports for BI (service plus console).

From the BI status page: total of 660 MP/s...

And I should add that the 1MP cam doesn't work with DTD or HWA.

 

[bp2008]

It is curious that your actual MP/s would be this much lower than what I calculated from your (23 MP * 30 FPS) + (3 MP * 15 FPS).

It is still unclear which task manager tab you get your 27-30% from. My own system also running 660 MP/s reports 32% for BlueIris.exe on Details, but 38% for Blue Iris on Processes. Which of these is "more accurate" is anyone's guess, but for the sake of comparing results it is important to know where the numbers come from. My BI server also streams about 2.5 FPS of jpeg images 24/7 to a tablet at my front door, which takes an extra 1-2% CPU. So it sounds as though your i7-8700 has very little advantage over my i7-3770K which just doesn't make sense. I'd expect your load to be low 20s if not below that. Even with DTD and HWVA disabled on one 1MP@15FPS cam.

 

[bubbajoe2112]

Ahhhh, on the details tab, the CPU usage is 16% -18%.

 

[AP-123]

Hey Guys,

I finally bought a refurb on eBay to run a dedicated BI machine remotely and have a couple of questions.

I bought a Dell OptiPlex 7050 MICRO 7th Gen i7-7700/16GB/128GB SSD/Win10 Pro with 30 days return policy. Perhaps overkill but I wanted something that I wouldn’t have to mess with for a while.

I have 13 Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-Z cameras running 1080P/10 FPS CBR/ 4096 Bit Rate.

First, in my haste, I realized that despite liking the micro form factor, it has no room for my WD Purple 3.5” drive that I was going to move over. Should I return the Dell and buy another or just get a 2.5" SATA drive? For my stupidity, I have no problems buying another drive. Other than the purple drives, which ones are good for surveillance in this form factor?

Second, with Win10 Pro – Can I use Teamview to remote in or are there any other recommendations?

Third, I’m currently port forwarding a few ports through a Ubiquity Edgemax Lite mainly to Synology and one port to my BI computer. I plan to do the same otherwise I’m heading to Nayr’s VPN primer.

Thanks for any input!

 

[fenderman]

Hey Guys,

I finally bought a refurb on eBay to run a dedicated BI machine remotely and have a couple of questions.

I bought a Dell OptiPlex 7050 MICRO 7th Gen i7-7700/16GB/128GB SSD/Win10 Pro with 30 days return policy. Perhaps overkill but I wanted something that I wouldn’t have to mess with for a while.

I have 13 Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-Z cameras running 1080P/10 FPS CBR/ 4096 Bit Rate.

First, in my haste, I realized that despite liking the micro form factor, it has no room for my WD Purple 3.5” drive that I was going to move over. Should I return the Dell and buy another or just get a 2.5" SATA drive? For my stupidity, I have no problems buying another drive. Other than the purple drives, which ones are good for surveillance in this form factor?

Second, with Win10 Pro – Can I use Teamview to remote in or are there any other recommendations?

Third, I’m currently port forwarding a few ports through a Ubiquity Edgemax Lite mainly to Synology and one port to my BI computer. I plan to do the same otherwise I’m heading to Nayr’s VPN primer.

Thanks for any input!

Return it..get the tower..

 

[Enrique]

Third, I’m currently port forwarding a few ports through a Ubiquity Edgemax Lite mainly to Synology and one port to my BI computer. I plan to do the same otherwise I’m heading to Nayr’s VPN primer.

Port forwarding to cameras is very risky, port forwarding to fully patched BI server is (I think) much less risky.

 

[Mikey217]

Hi,
Right now, I'm running BI on an old laptop with a Core2 Duo proc in it... it sucks. I can't even add a third camera, as it kills the machine. I'm looking at this cheap alternative - HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF i5-4590 3.3GHZ/8GB DDR3/1TB/DVD-RW/Win10 Pro $189. I know it's old, too, but it does support Quicksync. Would this be sufficient for 3 HD cameras (1 Hikvision and 2 Amcrest)? I don't have any of the camera specs on me at the moment.
Thanks!
Mike

 

[fenderman]

Hi,
Right now, I'm running BI on an old laptop with a Core2 Duo proc in it... it sucks. I can't even add a third camera, as it kills the machine. I'm looking at this cheap alternative - HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF i5-4590 3.3GHZ/8GB DDR3/1TB/DVD-RW/Win10 Pro $189. I know it's old, too, but it does support Quicksync. Would this be sufficient for 3 HD cameras (1 Hikvision and 2 Amcrest)? I don't have any of the camera specs on me at the moment.
Thanks!
Mike

easily...

 

[Mikey217]

Thanks!

 

[Clegg]

Hey guys, So I have had to migrate off a laptop I was using for my BI NVR. it had a 4310U proc (2Core, low power). The machine I put in has a 2400S (4 physical core, lower power). The 2400S has Quicksync support, but BI doesnt seem to be using it much as the CPU is still around 40-50% with 5 3 -4 MP cameras.

(Note that BI never worked properly with Quicksync on the laptop... always broken images, ghosting, etc.. so I never could use it)

I just grabbed a Ivybridge i5 3450s proc off Ebay that I can drop in the machine. (still 4 core + much higher speed, and 2nd gen Quicksync, and more cache at same power usage).

Is there any significant reason to look at a 4th gen Intel proc over the 3rd gen for BI use of Quicksync? Also from what I read the Intel HD graphics 2500 vs 4000 shouldnt make much difference in this case as the 4000's additional EUs are really only leveraged for 3D rendering. I am considering if I should turn around and sell the 3450 and get a 3475S instead (same price) since it had the higher end GPU on it.

 

[jjhdtv]

Trying to get the most economical BI machine running. Once I price something above a 4th generation Intel cpu, NVR prices start to look much better. I have a few questions.
Currently testing BI (Trial) on an Ivy bridge I3. Trying to run up to 6 of the 4k Lorex cameras full resolution at 15fps h.265. It is not working even after I followed the direct to disk and other optimizing suggestions (pegged at 100% cpu).

1) Does direct to disk work in the trial version?
2) great deals on ebay for Ivy I7's machines. Would this accomplish my current load 6x(3840x2160 15 fps)
3) Haswell I7's seem to be a few hundred more - benchmarks test do not show that much difference between ivy and haswell - would there be much BI improvement?
4) is there a basic rule of thumb to estimate amount of camera data BI can process (ie, differences between I7 ivy, haswell, broadwell, sklyake).
Eventually I just need to build it and see what happens but I would like to get an reasonable estimate before going down that path. thanks.

 

[fenderman]

Trying to get the most economical BI machine running. Once I price something above a 4th generation Intel cpu, NVR prices start to look much better. I have a few questions.
Currently testing BI (Trial) on an Ivy bridge I3. Trying to run up to 6 of the 4k Lorex cameras full resolution at 15fps h.265. It is not working even after I followed the direct to disk and other optimizing suggestions (pegged at 100% cpu).

1) Does direct to disk work in the trial version?
2) great deals on ebay for Ivy I7's machines. Would this accomplish my current load 6x(3840x2160 15 fps)
3) Haswell I7's seem to be a few hundred more - benchmarks test do not show that much difference between ivy and haswell - would there be much BI improvement?
4) is there a basic rule of thumb to estimate amount of camera data BI can process (ie, differences between I7 ivy, haswell, broadwell, sklyake).
Eventually I just need to build it and see what happens but I would like to get an reasonable estimate before going down that path. thanks.

1) no
2) yes, but though BI currently does not support h.265 hardware acceleration it will likely in the future and you would need skylake or higher...
3) skylake i7 can be had for 400-450 for an entire system...
4) no..

 

[jjhdtv]

1) no
2) yes, but though BI currently does not support h.265 hardware acceleration it will likely in the future and you would need skylake or higher...

Thank you for the reply fenderman.
Just a little confused about BI not supporting h.265. If I have the camera set to h.265 encoding and I'm using direct to disk recording won't the H.265 stream be recorded?
Currently I have the my cameras set to h.265 encodingI. I can view the live stream and recording in both the web interface and from within the program. Since I'm having the encoding done in the camera, perhaps I can get by with less horsepower.

 

[fenderman]

it means that hardware acceleration wont work...it will otherwise record and display...so it uses more cpu than h.264....

 

[jjhdtv]

Got it. A little more searching and your help put the pieces together. Since storage is not an issue for me, perhaps staying with h.264 is a better option. I suppose I could do a combination of both to keep the cpu in check. I think I'll go with the sub $200 Ivy I7 machine and down the road play with h.265 hardware acceleration and a more advance cpu.

 

[emersonvier]

I am looking for recommendation of small size, no performance, if is possible I don not want Tower or mini tower.

 

[ds1018]

Was considering building a new Blue Iris server. How many 4mp cameras @30fps can I run on a system with a i7-8700K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz?
Using hardware acceleration, direct to disk, and all the other tricks yall have up your sleeve. I'd probably start out with around 16 cameras but want to be able to grow the system out to maybe the low 20s. Most of them are going to be ReoLink RL410s. Ideally set for highest video quality.

Is 30fps a requirement? Nope. I'll probably drop it down on most if not all, but if I spend this much building a server I want it to be able to handle this load with ease if I so desire.

 

[fenderman]

Was considering building a new Blue Iris server. How many 4mp cameras @30fps can I run on a system with a i7-8700K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz?
Using hardware acceleration, direct to disk, and all the other tricks yall have up your sleeve. I'd probably start out with around 16 cameras but want to be able to grow the system out to maybe the low 20s. Most of them are going to be ReoLink RL410s. Ideally set for highest video quality.

Is 30fps a requirement? Nope. I'll probably drop it down on most if not all, but if I spend this much building a server I want it to be able to handle this load with ease if I so desire.

reolink does not play nice with blue iris..avoid that scam company..

 

[ds1018]

reolink does not play nice with blue iris..avoid that scam company..

Already bought and installed a handful of RLC-410 cameras. Also have some Hikvision and Amcrest cameras installed. All 4mp. Connected all of them to BlueIris 4 on my desktop without any issues. At first I did the shotgun approach, bought a bunch of different cameras, installed them, and ran them for a while to see if any annoyed me. They all performed just fine for my needs so I went back and ordered 6 more Reolinks since they're so much cheaper. I had no delusions that the quality of the camera was as on par as the others while being a fraction of the price. Now, one thing I haven't done is record any video, I've only used it to monitor. Based on your reply I searched the forums and seems there's a number of possible issues and I should probably test recording video before I finish installing them.

That being said, can anyone help me ballpark the max number of 4mp cameras I can run on a i7-8700K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz processor? Probably do Direct to Disk 24/7 recording. Probably will enabled motion detection for alerting during certain profiles (away, night, etc..)