Building Milestone Computer for HD Cameras

[supie]

I am considering buying a Skylake based i7-6700 computer , based on the forums recommendations.

At my home I have Six 3MP POE Cameras on a gigabyte network and using Milestone XProtect Go.
Currently I am using a dedicated computer but when 4 cameras or more are being monitoring the CPU is on overloaded. I realize that I can change settings in Milestone to reduce CPU usage but it also reduces the picture quality and/or frame rate. I have built many computers and networks but I am a newbie in the CCTV arena and I have a few questions that I have not been able to find the answers elsewhere on the forum:

Considering I am using Milestone and will never expand beyond 8 cameras how would you recommend building the dedicated CCTV Server?

Computer:
Is there an advantage to buying the Dell 5040 Mid Tower vs. the 5040 Small Form Factor computer? Are there other model numbers or brands which would give the best bang for the buck? Or am I better off building the server from scratch? (Portatech or other recommendations?)

CPU Processor:
How important is it to get the i7 6700 vs. the i5 6500? I am looking at the following:
Intel Core i7-6700 quad-core processor - 3.4/4.0GHz = 11922 Speed Rating
Intel Core i5-6500 quad-core processor - 3.9GHz = 8615 Speed Rating
Does Milestone use the i7 6700 or i5 6500 CPU’s multiple cores and multiple graphics cores handle some of the intensive graphics load better than other processors ?

Intel Quick Sync:
Does Quick Sync work with Milestone and does it reduce the CPU load? Does this apply to both the i7 & i5 processors?

Ram Memory:
How much ram is really needed for the six cameras 8GB or 16GB? How important is it to get the Ram Memory Sticks running at 2400 MHz or 2133 MHz vs. 1600 MHz? Also is there any advantage to have DDR4 vs.DDR3L?

Operating System:
Is there any downside to running Windows 7 vs. Windows 10 or visa versa?

Power Supply:
What size power supply should the Dell 5040 computer have, is 180W SFF or 240W Mid Tower enough?

Thanks in advance, Supie

 

[randytsuch]

So I can't offer much advice, but will respond anyway lol.
It doesn't seem like many people use Milestone, I would guess it's because they JUST made Essential free for up to 8 cams, and it hasn't really caught on compared to BI.

I only have one cam, a 4mp dahua I just got a couple weeks ago. I had the pieces for a PC, so I put one together for almost nothing. I started with a G620 processor which was too slow, yesterday I installed Milestone on another pc with an Xeon E3-1225V3.

This processor has quick sync and a CPU mark of 7034, which is about the same as an I5-6500. BTW, I'm not sure where your processor numbers come from, I have been using the cpu mark numbers from cpubenchmark.net, hopefully they are reflective for this application.

I don't have a recording disk yet, so I'm not actually recording, my financial controller said to see if disks go on sale on Black Friday, so I have to wait, lol.

So I know this isn't much use yet, but with my xeon, things work fine with one cam and no recording lol. Ohh, but I can look at the video from a phone on wifi, and it was pretty fast to pull it up.

Windows 7, 8gb ddr3 ram. I have read that this is not ram intensive, so 8 should be enough.

Randy

 

[kheiney]

I run Milestone Essential on a Intel NUC i3 with 8 3MP camera's. It runs around 15% CPU. You don't need a powerful PC to run this software.

 

[supie]

I'm not sure where your processor numbers come from, I have been using the cpu mark numbers from cpubenchmark.net, hopefully they are reflective for this application.

The CPU marks are from Portatech I& 6700 = 11922 - CPbenchmark.net = 11014

Thanks for your responses.

Still hoping others who are familiar with the higher end parts will be able to answer my questions.