Blue Iris PC Build

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As promised this is my PC Build Thread.

I'll divide into sections so if you want to you can skip parts that don't interest you (hopefully it all does!).

It's not intended as a definitive "this is the pc you need / must build". It represents my choices based on what I perceived to be the best value for money at the price point I was trying to achieve. Others may have differing hardware requirements and opinions on whether the right choices were made.

If you live in the USA, you may find new or nearly used ready built PC's bought by companies in bulk or replaced often after little use, represent better value than building. In the UK and maybe EU (unsure of the EU but it's often similar), these can be hard to find. In the UK at least, most companies only buy the exact number of PC's they need and often run them into the ground before buying new ones making the 2nd hand / refurb market more risky. UK buyers may also find refurb pc's quite expensive over here - not much cheaper than building so a double wammy.

Building was right for me because in my searches a similar pc refurbed wouldn't have been much cheaper and self building allowed much better control over the selection and quality of components and better future upgrade choices over many refurbed office pc's.

I also used the IP Cam Talk Store for my Blue Iris Licence to Support Fenderman and the community.

 

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Component Choices

These are the components chosen and reason for the choices:


Case - Thermaltake Core V21

Not my original case choice but my 1st choice wasn't available due to the COVID shortages so had to buy this more expensive one. Glad I bought this though.

It's a Micro ATX but a large one, not much smaller than a Mid Tower in height and quite wide.

Reasons for Choice:

- Price

- Airflow

- Reputation

- Flexbility - the panels are all interchangeable so you can configure the case how you like with any panel on any side.

- Looks professional

- Size makes it relatively easy to fit out and loads of room inside for components and cables

Downsides:

- Very large for Micro ATX - almost as high as a Midi Tower and being rectangular quite long and wide.














BTW for the observant amongst you, that isn't a bent top, the case has magnetic dust filters and I failed to notice one had slipped during handling before photographing.

 

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Internal Components




Processor

Intel - i5-11400 - 6 Cores, 12 threads. According to CPUBenchmark it scores the same in performance benchmarks as an i7-10700, 5,000 points more than an i7-9600 and DOUBLE and i7-7700!

All for around $190 making it very good value in the price to performance ratio.


Heat Sink

Forgot to photograph this but I bought a Raijintek Rhea air cooler and heatsink. You can see it in the build later on. A tower design with 3 Heat Pipes. All for around $18. Basically, Intel processors have a reputation of running hot and all electrontics last longer is kept cool. In my opinion for just $18 it was a solid buy. Seems to have good consumer reviews but no doubt is a long way behind the market leading heatsinks which were totally unnecessary and unjustifiable for this build. So a compromise on performance vs price but should exceeed the standard heatsink by some way.


CPU Thermal Paste

Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut - A thermal paste thats only a few $ more expensive than my previous favourite - Artic Silver but that's supposed to offer far superior conductivity. A good compromise between cost and performance especially as this isn't a high performance rig. In my opinion, Thermal Paste is often overlooked when only a couple of $ can make several degrees difference in cooling performance.

Memory

16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengence 3200 - Solid memory and the 2nd cheapest available by only a few $ when purchased so couldn't go wrong really.


Motherboard

Gigabyte Z590M GamingX - Some will say overkill and I agree. My 1st choice board which was about $30 cheaper but still had a 1st class power stage, was unavailble due to COVID shortages so I had to pay more and get one of these. I did my research ahead of time as the most important aspect of a motherboard is the power stage in my opinion. You could say you don't need a good power stage if not overclocking but as above, electronics live longer if cool and run at idle. So having an overkill supply stage should give longetivity as should the top grade Japanese capacitors.

The only downside to this board is I had to make a small modification - the fixed I/O Plate is fixed to the underside of the MB and one end of this was interfering with the case moutning point with the result I had to cut a little bit of the I/O shield bracket away underneath to make the MB fit. Will be reporting this to Gigabyte as clearly a design issue.


Power Supply

Corsair RM650 - again the emphasis on quality of supply with japanese capcitors. Was 650W necessary? I very much doubt so, but again it means it will be idling and it allows room for future expansion / upgrades.


Hard Drive (Main)

Samsung 870 EVO - Chosen due to it's better quality flash memory, long lifespan and very quick access times. M.2 shows very little gain over SSD so chose to save money and get a top of pile SSD over a bottom range M.2.


Case Fan

Be Silent Pure Wings 2 - Never purchased one before but excellent reputation for both airflow and noise. I'm struggling to tell when the system is on it's so quiet!!!


Hard Drive (Footage)




4TB Western Digital Purple - Well proven surveillance drive. Size dictated by prices atm.


Blue Iris - Purchased from the IP Cam Talk Store.

 

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The Build !

This is how I did it. Again not designed to be a perfect example of system building but rather an example of how it can be done.

After preparing the case by removing it from it's packaging, I started off by opening the motherboard and standing it on it's electrostatic protection packaging in the MB Box.

Mentioning static, avoid building on synthetic carpets due to static. I used a wooden table and regularly (before and after every component) touched a radiator pipe I knew was earthed so as to disharge any static build up.





I then removed the CPU Socket Lid and placed the CPU and Thermal Paste Ready for fitment (be careful of the socket pins as they're now exposed and prone to damage):





I then inserted the CPU paying attention to the notches on each side and the mark showing the orientation of the CPU relative to the socket:




I then applied the Thermal Paste to the CPU. Note every paste is different - always follow the manufacturers recommendations for spreading:




I then fitted the heatsink and fan following the manufacturer's recommendations. In my case I had to unclip the fan to install the heatsink and then attach it afterwards.

Pay attention here to the fan's wiring and how it's routed around the heatsink relative to the nearest / neatest / easiest fan header (socket) on your motherboard.

Also pay attention to the fan direction!!!!

The fans often have an arrow on these days on the side to show the direction of air flow. Usually as well the fans always exhaust to the rear ie the side with the serial number sticker on and intake from the front - the side with the logo on.

Obviously you want the fan to blow out of or towards the nearest ventillation grill to get rid of the hot cpu air.

 

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I then inserted the memory sticks.

Please follow your manufacturers instructions again.

Most motherboards have 4 slots for memory and these are paired for Dual Channel, usually channels 1+3 and 2+4. Normally the MB manufacturer will use memory clips that are a slightly different colour for channels 1+3 and 2+4 so as to show which slots are paired. Alaways check the manual.

I chose slots 2+4 to get slightly better clearance from the heatsink fan:




From here I opened the case and pre-prepped the PSU for fitment. I didn't attach wires at this stage but on reflection it may have proven easier to add some. Part of the reason here is I hadn't sat down and figured out which wires I was going to need.




Note every case is different. This one was a dificult fit for several reasons - poor instructions (not uncommon) and the need to fit a support bracket seen below:



I then fitted the Motherboard.

This was where the real fun started - dangers of having a Rev 1 motherboard maybe (?) as the motherboard wouldn't screw down easily at one corner. Having forced it, I thought better of it and removed it again. Upon inspection I found the I/O Shield support was obstructing the motherboard standoff built into the case and had been bent during fixing the motherboard down. Hence why it wouldn't go down at that corner and why the screw was so hard to fasten.

Luckily, the bracket hadn't touched the back of the motherboard / solder legs underneath (it appears to have in the photo but that's just the angle):



I've never had to modify a motherboard before but had little choice here so went in with a pair of small tin snips after bending the bracket part back up (not recommended).

I could have glossed this over but thought I'd include my issues and mistakes instead of just posting a clean build. Here's the mod, not ideal but necessary:



You can see the fixing point below the arrow and how the bracket would have come right up to it.

..and finally mounted:

 

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This is the rear view after the PSU and Motherboard were mounted.

Deliberate mistake here, you can see I forgot to mount the rear fan before inserting the motherboard. It wasn't difficult to add as plenty of room but always think ahead as to the best order to add components. I'm blaming my lapses on a 12 year gap since building my last PC!!




From here I prepared the rear case fan I was going to mount directly behind the CPU heatsink - the CPU fan is blowing heat towards this fan and exit:



The direction of airflow here as confirmed by the arrows on the sid of the fans is towards the carpet ie as I mentioned above, the logo side is the intake usually.

..and mounted in here:




I then inserted the SSD into it's carrier:



...and mounted it into the case:



I also added my WD Purple Hard Drive into it's carrier and inserted it into the Hard Drive Rack in the bottom of the case:

 

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After adding the Hard Drive, I wired the case using Cable Ties to tie extra lengths of cable back on themsleves so as to keep the case tidy. I powered the Hard Drive but did NOT connect the SATA cable.

In my experience it's easier when installing Windows, to have only 1 hard drive connected.

I also added in the PNY Nvidia Quadro P620 Graphics Card for deepstack. This is self powered from the PCI-E Slot and doesn't require a separate cable.



I then put the sides on the case an installed Windows.

A word about Windows 10. It's still possible to get a free upgrade. I'm pretty sure MS will know about these methods as they've been long publisised. It's probable they turn a blind eye due to trying to get people to migrate from 7 & 8.

I installed Windows 10 Pro.

I then installed the drivers - difficult in this case as no DVD drive. However, I simply went to the MB and manufacturers websites from my other PC and downloaded the drivers from there and put them onto a USB stick, and then installed into this one after Windows was up and running.

I then Installed my copy of Blue Irirs purchased from the IPCAMTALK Webstore during the Black Friday event.

Finally I connected the WD Purple Hard Drive to the system after everything was up and running and specified this as the media drive.



Final Build:

 

[Sphinxicus]

nice case, reminds me of a larger form factor of my HP microserver that i used to run zoneminder on until i got proper cameras and BI

 

[IAmATeaf]

nice case, reminds me of a larger form factor of my HP microserver that i used to run zoneminder on until i got proper cameras and BI

Was about to post and in fact have posted to say it reminds me of the HP micro server, got one sitting under my desk not being used.

 

[Sphinxicus]

Was about to post and in fact have posted to say it reminds me of the HP micro server, got one sitting under my desk not being used.

funny you should say that. I had bunged 16GB RAM in mine and was running ESXi with a VM with Zoneminder on it (among other VMs). Once i made the decision to switch to BI (which happened to coinside with building a new NAS) the HP microserver has sat there powered off. Have to say it was a trusty server. Just massively underpowered CPU, but you cant complain for such a cheap device!

 

[crw030]

Luckily, the bracket hadn't touched the back of the motherboard / solder legs underneath (it appears to have in the photo but that's just the angle):

OMG when I recently built my wife's new computer I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM with her V21 case and her Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P. I ended up putting a standoff in that raised board mount (it's just punched and raised up) and tapping it down out of the way but I would have been so upset if it had blown up my build somehow. I did check and the tallest pins appear to all be ground though, it's still awful design by either board maker or case maker.

Also her V21 has an annoying whine in the front fan when it ramps up and down, if your Blue Iris is in a separate room it might not matter, but I find it somewhat annoying because it's sitting right behind me.

If I recall correctly the support brackets can be moved around in the case, so you can mount lots of extra things and even a gigantic cooler, I ended up liking it after building in it, because it's just really spacious.

 

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OMG when I recently built my wife's new computer I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM with her V21 case and her Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P. I ended up putting a standoff in that raised board mount (it's just punched and raised up) and tapping it down out of the way but I would have been so upset if it had blown up my build somehow. I did check and the tallest pins appear to all be ground though, it's still awful design by either board maker or case maker.

Also her V21 has an annoying whine in the front fan when it ramps up and down, if your Blue Iris is in a separate room it might not matter, but I find it somewhat annoying because it's sitting right behind me.

If I recall correctly the support brackets can be moved around in the case, so you can mount lots of extra things and even a gigantic cooler, I ended up liking it after building in it, because it's just really spacious.

Mine is totally silent. So quiet I can't even tell it's on. The supports on this version are punched up out of the case as rasied pieces of steel, so fitting standoffs wouldn't really have worked as it would have been too high for the I/O slot.

I think I need to contact Gigabyte and make them aware of this. They shouldn't be putting brackets so close to the support holes anyway in my opinion as this is totally forseable.

 

[crw030]

so fitting standoffs wouldn't really have worked as it would have been too high for the I/O slot.

I should have been more clear, I put a standoff in the steel raised standoff that was causing the problem and "tapped it down" with a hammer so there was no more interference. I can't remember if I removed the standoff in the end, I believe I left it because the standoff did NOT interfere with the shield underneath, but I agree without tapping it down the standoff would have been way too high for the board to sit properly. I basically just bent the steel raised bit down the other way (from raised "hill" to slightly depressed) until I was happy with the height of the standoff under the board and had eliminated the interference.

I agree though, would be nice if if this wasn't necessary, I assume its a case design problem as I've not encountered this type of interference problem in previous builds in other cases.