Blue Iris Hardware Recommendations

[wcrowder]

True. But I have spare OS licenses. And looking at history, this time next year, the E3-1276v3's will be on EBay for less then a hundred bucks. That processor is faster then an I7-4770k. So I have future options that I would not have on an HP Elitedesk 800 g1 that you linked. If I'm looking at the 800 g1 specs correctly, I don't believe you can add a discrete video card, or for that matter even an extra hard drive. If the HW acceleration comes out, you would loose that ability. Am I wrong?

 

[fenderman]

True. But I have spare OS licenses. And looking at history, this time next year, the E3-1276v3's will be on EBay for less then a hundred bucks. That processor is faster then an I7-4770k. So I have future options that I would not have on an HP Elitedesk 800 g1 that you linked. If I'm looking at the 800 g1 specs correctly, I don't believe you can add a discrete video card, or for that matter even an extra hard drive. If the HW acceleration comes out, you would loose that ability. Am I wrong?

There are 4 form factors for the elitedesk. A mini tower that can hold more drives/full size cards. A sff, that can hold a half size card, one 3.5 and one 2.5., and USDT and mini that can only hold one 2.5 drive and no cards.
So you can get the tower and be ok.
Im betting that the hardware acceleration will still work on integrated graphics, not only nvidia cards. I really dont want to add discrete cards as they raise power consumption significantly, add heat, and are another point of failure. The new skylake 530 IG are significantly improved so im hoping BI will take advantage of IG, but its just guesswork..

 

[wcrowder]

The E3-1225 (version 3) is slightly slower then a I5-4690, it is only 2 years old.

http://ark.intel.com/products/75461/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1225-v3-8M-Cache-3_20-GHz

I passed on the elite desk 800-g1 for it's lack of upgradablity. I have enough junk desktops laying around already... LOL... This system will run my current setup, and can easily be updated to

 

[wcrowder]

The E3-1225 is a lot like an i5. An older i5. That CPU is 4 years old.

It would have been more cost effective to get a refurbished i5-4590 system as fenderman is always saying. But at least this way you have a lot of room for more HDDs and a graphics card, though I hope you don't overload the power supply.

280w power supply is fine, for a Haswell system designed for this use. This will be quiet, power efficient, and easily handle the load. I will never use more then 2 hard drives, they use less the 3-6 watts apiece anywho's . I'll be using an old Geforce GT720 that uses 45w on power up, and has 192 cores. Should be more then sufficient for BI.

Power supplies are cheap and easy to change if I run any problems in the future.

 

[Q™]

280w power supply is fine, for a Haswell system designed for this use. This will be quiet, power efficient, and easily handle the load. I will never use more then 2 hard drives, they use less the 3-6 watts apiece anywho's . I'll be using an old Geforce GT720 that uses 45w on power up, and has 192 cores. Should be more then sufficient for BI.

Power supplies are cheap and easy to change if I run any problems in the future.

Blue Iris has never supported add-in video cards, so it matters not what card you put in the machine, with this exception: recently Ken as added support for Nvidia cards although the community does not yet have a consensus on the advantages and performance of this new functionality.

I like you wcrowder...although you remind me (a little bit) of some of my customers who will ask me my professional opinion, and then argue with me about my answers; I usually keep my mouth shut, but I wonder why they asked if they already had their mind made up.

Peace Brother.

 

[fenderman]

Blue Iris has never supported add-in video cards, so it matters not what card you put in the machine, with this exception: recently Ken as added support for Nvidia cards although the community does not yet have a consensus on the advantages and performance of this new functionality.

I dont believe the hardware acceleration has been added, though I dont have an nvidia card to test. He mentioned in a prior release that it will be added in 4.2 however there was never a release note saying that it was implemented. I sent an email asking for an ETA...

 

[wcrowder]

Blue Iris has never supported add-in video cards, so it matters not what card you put in the machine, with this exception: recently Ken as added support for Nvidia cards although the community does not yet have a consensus on the advantages and performance of this new functionality.

I like you wcrowder...although you remind me (a little bit) of some of my customers who will ask me my professional opinion, and then argue with me about my answers; I usually keep my mouth shut, but I wonder why they asked if they already had their mind made up.

Peace Brother.

I'm not doubting your advise. My situation is different from most home users here. I understand that the advice you guys gave is good for the average consumer/home user. Frankly a consumer desktop was not what I was looking for. As to graphics cards, if actually implemented, would greatly increase the capabilities of BI. Like you said, that is a wait-n-see.

I don't believe I'll have a problem with what I've chosen, If I do, I'll be the first to tell you, "you told me so"...

 

[Q™]

...I don't believe I'll have a problem with what I've chosen, If I do, I'll be the first to tell you, "you told me so"...

Nah...I don't have a need to be that way. I hope it works out for you, and if it doesn't you sound like you have the experience to get it right.

 

[Q™]

I dont believe the hardware acceleration has been added, though I dont have an nvidia card to test. He mentioned in a prior release that it will be added in 4.2 however there was never a release note saying that it was implemented. I sent an email asking for an ETA...

Didn't the mention the coming hardware accelleration specifically mention only "Nvidia" support?

 

[fenderman]

Didn't the mention the coming hardware accelleration specifically mention only "Nvidia" support?

He just mentioned "particularly" with nvidia. Intel HD supports dx9 as well...who knows..

• We are exploring hardware video acceleration particularly in conjunction with nVIDIA graphics adaptors and this will require the use of DirectX9 and perhaps other newer technologies...​

 

[Q™]

For an organization such as mine -- where Bp2008's BI Better Viewer is used by 3 or 4 persons to live view cameras and (occasionally) review archived video -- does hardware acceleration provide us with any advantage?

 

[fenderman]

For an organization such as mine -- where Bp2008's BI Better Viewer is used by 3 or 4 persons to live view cameras and (occasionally) review archived video -- does hardware acceleration provide us with any advantage?

It should because it will allow you to run more cams with the same hardware...but we wont know until its released.

 

[wcrowder]

For an organization such as mine -- where Bp2008's BI Better Viewer is used by 3 or 4 persons to live view cameras and (occasionally) review archived video -- does hardware acceleration provide us with any advantage?

The Java display app should at least, our "nuclear" VMS is java based and relies on acceleration. Yes really.... I have to look into it. bp2008?

https://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/features.html

 

[spyfly81]

Welp just got home from thanksgiving vacation and my nvr network has stopped working on me, time to our a elitedesk

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[wcrowder]

There are 4 form factors for the elitedesk. A mini tower that can hold more drives/full size cards. A sff, that can hold a half size card, one 3.5 and one 2.5., and USDT and mini that can only hold one 2.5 drive and no cards.
So you can get the tower and be ok.
Im betting that the hardware acceleration will still work on integrated graphics, not only nvidia cards. I really dont want to add discrete cards as they raise power consumption significantly, add heat, and are another point of failure. The new skylake 530 IG are significantly improved so im hoping BI will take advantage of IG, but its just guesswork..

The cheapest price I can find an HP Elitedesk Tower with at least and I5-4570 is:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-TOWER-I5-4570-3-2GHz-4GB-500GB-DVDRW-W7P-KB-MOUSE-WARRANTY-/321914540025?hash=item4af39a0ff9:g:MGsAAOSw~bFWPjZI

Found this, better... Higher, but still limited... From what I read, you can't update the processor, tho it should be enough.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-MT-Core-i7-4770-3-4GHz-4GB-500GB-Win-7-Pro-1-Yr-Wty-/401025649285?hash=item5d5efdca85:g:K5MAAOSwLzdWQ7Vu

You still have to buy Ram and a 3tb or better HD. Which puts them both over $700.00. And Blue Iris "specifically" notates an nvidia video card, and after looking at nVidia's API support, "might" be what he is doing and why. I'm just guessing on the last. Really looking forward to finding out!!!!

 

[fenderman]

The cheapest price I can find an HP Elitedesk Tower with at least and I5-4570 is:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-TOWER-I5-4570-3-2GHz-4GB-500GB-DVDRW-W7P-KB-MOUSE-WARRANTY-/321914540025?hash=item4af39a0ff9:g:MGsAAOSw~bFWPjZI

With these ebay deals you have to wait for availability and a good deal. I have in the past purchased the mini tower for 241. Usually around 300 though....I dont see why you cant update the processor as its available with an i7-4790...regardless, most folks are not going to do that..for your needs the lenovo is a fine deal.

 

[ClipperMiami]

I've just ordered a Zotac XBox with an Intel 2.5GHz i7 to replace my current Celeron ZBox. The current system has 14 1MP 720p cameras running on the second stream (640x352) and 5fps due to the load until I can get the new system. I'll change to the 1240x720 first stream and a higher frame rate when I get it running.

 

[wcrowder]

I've just ordered a Zotac XBox with an Intel 2.5GHz i7 to replace my current Celeron ZBox. The current system has 14 1MP 720p cameras running on the second stream (640x352) and 5fps due to the load until I can get the new system. I'll change to the 1240x720 first stream and a higher frame rate when I get it running.

Passmark of 8790, add a 2tb 2.5" drive to that and you should get better then 7 days retention. Quiet and works. Good Deal at 720p... Better then a consumer NVR's. But limited upgrades if you ever want to add higher rez cameras.

 

[spyfly81]

How is this i7 for video? Benchmarks at 8200ish https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2600+@+3.40GHz

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[ClipperMiami]

Thanks. I've been very happy with the current Celeron but I want to move up to the higher resolution and a somewhat higher frame rate. As it stands the Celeron has around 50-65% CPU so its breathing hard when it starts recording. And I've just added BI tools so that's added some to the CPU.

My current ZBox has a 2tb 2.5" SSD so I'm just going to transfer it over as is. I currently move everything off to DropBox so space is not a problem. Dropbox has the advantage of offsite storage in the background and so far has been highly satisfactory. I tend to purge stuff fairly quickly so mass storage isn't an issue.