Blue Iris Hardware Recommendations

[wcrowder]

Consider that lots of folks use ultra small form factor pc's and the fact that the majority of BI users (not power users) will have machines with intel HD, benefits it makes sense, at least to me. Every single one of my machines is running intel HD, so at least for me, intel wins. He is starting somewhere, hopefully with intel

I agree!!!, I don't want to add a 60watt card to my brand new home system. Right now I'm at 60 watts... But, it's a cost/benefit thing. Intel HD uses the processor and system ram. nVidia/ATI cards are specialized to process video...

 

[fenderman]

Yes the SFF will only hold 1 3.5...first determine how much storage you actually need. You may find that 2tb is enough...For example I have a machine that can easily do a month of recording on a 1tb drive (and its used for the OS as well). 10 cameras all using motion detection and 4096 bitrate. Obviously it varies by activity at the location.
You can run blue iris on the same same drive as recordings. That is what most folks do. That said, SSD's are really cheap. So for 50-70 bux it cannot hurt..I would do it on a fresh install. IF you get an SSD, leave the database folder on the SSD. Buy a reliable drive, intel, curcial, samsung.

 

[spyfly81]

do the SFF have an external e-sata port? or a usb 3.0 port? if so you could run an external hard drive if you really need the space

 

[wcrowder]

do the SFF have an external e-sata port? or a usb 3.0 port? if so you could run an external hard drive if you really need the space

Why, you can by a 4tb drive for $129.

 

[dalepa]

I have an older Lenovo i5-4570T@2.9Ghz with SSD for OS and storing all my BI recording on a 2.5in 2tb USB3 drive. No disk io problems with 5 cams. Cpu is about 80%.

I dont see see any issues just getting one drive, larger the better. The color branding in a gimmick imho, get the cheapest 4-8TB you can find.


The Optiplex 9020 looks about 2x faster, so I would expect at least 8-10 cams from it..

Thanks Fenderman! I have waited close to 6 months to make that purchase...

I needed the Optiplex 9020 SFF (Small Form Factor) because the MT (Mini Tower) was too big and also vertical as opposed to horizontal (like the SFF).
I just was researching the 9020 SFF options for hard drives and it looks like it will only hold ONE 3.5" HDD.

My plan was to use 2 WD Purple Drives (3 GB each) - obviously I can no longer do that onboard the 9020 SFF.

Two questions...
1. Is it necessary to have my Windows OS on a separate drive than where I am recording my feeds?

2. If so, can anyone recommend how I should set up the HDD (i.e. SSD for OS and 4GB WD Purple HDD for recording?) Does anyone run BI
on a SFF PC that has gotten around this issue? (I do have a 4 bay NAS but it is connected to my File Sharing home server so I cant record
the feeds to it without jamming up my file sharing server. (or could I..? i'm stumped.)

 

[ClipperMiami]

By way of comparison for new comers, I have the following setup:

Zotac ZBox with a 1.8 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 3GB main memory, a 256GB SSD. All recorded files storage is to folders on Dropbox so they copy offnet in the background. I'm running Windows XP with BI 4 and Blue Iris Tools. I have 14 1MP 720p cameras (4 Wi-Fi and 10 PoE) attached using the second stream (640x352) most in 5-10 FPS, two in 15 FPS. This system is accessed by the Vera Blue Iris Plugin so remote access is essentially always active. My CPU usage is normally 55-65% with peaks to 85% so its breathing hard at this level of activity. When I first set up BI this was what I had sitting around from another project so I used it not expecting to add this many cameras at the time.

Because I want to run the cameras at 1280x720 (first stream) and higher frame rates I have on order a ZBox with an Intel i7-4770 and 16GB memory which I hope will provide significant improvement.

Hope this helps new comers to make decisions about their hardware choices.

Further to this, I have my new system running. I was able to get it running using a copy of the current system even running under Windows XP. The only glitch was to find LAN drivers for XP which it turns out Zotac included on their setup CD despite the fact they don't support XP on this machine. I still haven't found all the drivers but the system doesn't seem to mind. I cannot find WLAN drivers but since this system is on a wired LAN it's not a problem.

Transferring the system as is resulted in about 13pct CPU versus the earlier 55-65pct so the improvement was significant. Switching all the cameras to 1280x720, 1Mbps, 10fps resulted in a nominal 24pct CPU so there is plenty of breathing room.

Next is to physically install the new system and move on.

 

[Aaronhud]

I'm looking for some answers on if I have 5 720hd cameras can I get by with a Intel i5 dell

 

[fenderman]

I'm looking for some answers on if I have 5 720hd cameras can I get by with a Intel i5 dell

yes...what model i5? make sure to set blue iris to record the cameras direct to disc..record tab>file format

 

[Aaronhud]

Why model and specs would I suggest

 

[fenderman]

Why model and specs would I suggest

If you are buying a new system, then look for a haswell/skylake i5 (forth or sixth gen)...
You can easily by a HP elitedesk business or dell optiplex 7020/9020 i5-4570/4590 for about 300..this will give you headroom for future expansion.
There are many threads discussing these pc's from the dell outlet or ebay.

 

[Aaronhud]

Thanks so in reality I should be fine with an I5 and won't need an i7 to run my 5 cameras. I won't be adding any additional cameras

 

[fenderman]

Thanks so in reality I should be fine with an I5 and won't need an i7 to run my 5 cameras. I won't be adding any additional cameras

No you dont need an i7..remember get a haswell or skylake not something old like a first gen processor.

 

[Aaronhud]

Where is a good site to find one and what is the cost thanks

 

[fenderman]

Where is a good site to find one and what is the cost thanks

search the forum for those pc's mentioned...dell outlet and ebay..just make sure its forth gen...

 

[melabum]

Dear All, I am a new entrant and just joined the forum. We bought a Longvast's Granvista IP cameras from Taiwan early this year and it came with an NVR software. However, on installation, we realized that the software is very older that it could not run on Window Server 2012 Operation. It couldn't work well with Window Server 2008, therefore, we have to run it on 2003 Server OS. However, after the installation, we realized that live video streams from the cameras are rather too slow. I drags at the rate of 4s which is unacceptable to our client. Looking for lasting solution, we stumble on BlueIris NVR software which appeared to be compatible with Granvista IP cameras. A test or demo installation confirmed the compatibility of the software with cameras but we are not certain, if the BlueIsris NVR software solution can work well on HP Proliant DL380p Gen 8 & 9 servers running Window 2012 Sever Operating system. The Servers were bought for the Longvast NVR software solution. The Server specification is as summarized below: HP Proliant DL380p Gen 9 Server, 2U rack-mountable Chasis, 2-way, 1 Xeon E5 2620V2 6-core 2.1 GHz processor, 16GB RAM, 2 units of 1TB HDDs (for OS and application software), 8 units of 4TB HDDs (for video storage), 4 ports of LAN gigabit Ethernet, Matrox G200 VGA and Window Sever 2012 operating system.

 

[fenderman]

Dear All, I am a new entrant and just joined the forum. We bought a Longvast's Granvista IP cameras from Taiwan early this year and it came with an NVR software. However, on installation, we realized that the software is very older that it could not run on Window Server 2012 Operation. It couldn't work well with Window Server 2008, therefore, we have to run it on 2003 Server OS. However, after the installation, we realized that live video streams from the cameras are rather too slow. I drags at the rate of 4s which is unacceptable to our client. Looking for lasting solution, we stumble on BlueIris NVR software which appeared to be compatible with Granvista IP cameras. A test or demo installation confirmed the compatibility of the software with cameras but we are not certain, if the BlueIsris NVR software solution can work well on HP Proliant DL380p Gen 8 & 9 servers running Window 2012 Sever Operating system. The Servers were bought for the Longvast NVR software solution. The Server specification is as summarized below: HP Proliant DL380p Gen 9 Server, 2U rack-mountable Chasis, 2-way, 1 Xeon E5 2620V2 6-core 2.1 GHz processor, 16GB RAM, 2 units of 1TB HDDs (for OS and application software), 8 units of 4TB HDDs (for video storage), 4 ports of LAN gigabit Ethernet, Matrox G200 VGA and Window Sever 2012 operating system.

Welcome to the forum. How many cameras? what resolution?

 

[melabum]

Thank you Fenderman for the valued response. There are 12 cameras in all and their respective resolution is "1600 x 1200"

 

[fenderman]

Thank you Fenderman for the valued response. There are 12 cameras in all and their respective resolution is "1600 x 1200"

Yes, you should be fine with that server. Make sure to record the cameras in direct to disk mode. (record tab>file format)

 

[nowandthen]

Yes, you should be fine with that server. Make sure to record the cameras in direct to disk mode. (record tab>file format)

In direct to disk mode, are time and date stamps embedded in the video recordings? If not, how does one tell/prove when the recording took place? I curretnly use Hikvision cameras if that matters.

 

[Q™]

In direct to disk mode, are time and date stamps embedded in the video recordings? If not, how does one tell/prove when the recording took place? I curretnly use Hikvision cameras is that matters.

When you enable Direct-to-disk you loose Blue Iris' ability to time and date stamp your video. To regain this functionality, log into each camera and enable...

Advanced Config > Image > OSD Settings (Tab)

...and the result will be that each camera will time/datestamp the videp it produces...however...you then run into the problem of synchronizing the time on each of your cameras. Here's a nifty clue to solve that issue...

Here's what I do to solve this issue...

Login to each camera, navigate to "System > Time Settings" and set "Time Sync." to the IP address of your Blue Iris server. Set "NTP Port" to 123 & "Interval" as desired. Then install this "NetTime" timer server utility on your Blue Iris Server...

http://www.timesynctool.com/

Problem solved!

Edit: NTP port should be"123"