So I'm one of those, who bought and returned an unused Reolink setup after delving into this forum. I've been mulling with going with an NVR or PC, and after reading a slew of critical reviews regarding the Dahua and Hikvision android apps, I've decided to go with a Blue Iris PC.
I am planning on parking it in the top of a kitchen cabinet so I need to go small. I basically looked at 3 options:
1. building from scratch - cost too much.
2. Reusing an old micro-atx Sandy Bridge i5-3570k setup. I would need a new case, new cpu cooler, and sff psu which would cost around $120 total. I however could not find a case that would fit this hardware in the space I plan on putting it.
3. Find a decent price on a new/refurb sff PC.
I today decided to go with a pretty good deal on an HP prodesk i5-8500 (Gen 8 hexacore) from ebay (after offer) for $349 shipped with 2 1/2 yrs warranty - HP ProDesk 400 G5 SFF i5-8500 3.00GHz 8GB DDR4 240GB SSD Win10 Warranty 2022 | eBay . I'll of course add a WD purple HD.
For the money given the options, I think the $349 is worth it given I am getting almost new hardware, 2 1/2 yr warranty, a case that fits my space, and plenty of processing power.
The Dahua NVR I was looking at from Andy is about $300, and it just doesn't make sense to me to save the $50 difference + poe switch cost just to get something I probably won't be satisfied with.
Do you guys think my reasoning makes sense here? I'm new to the whole Blue Iris thing, but I have been building/troubleshooting PCs for 20yrs.
I am planning on parking it in the top of a kitchen cabinet so I need to go small. I basically looked at 3 options:
1. building from scratch - cost too much.
2. Reusing an old micro-atx Sandy Bridge i5-3570k setup. I would need a new case, new cpu cooler, and sff psu which would cost around $120 total. I however could not find a case that would fit this hardware in the space I plan on putting it.
3. Find a decent price on a new/refurb sff PC.
I today decided to go with a pretty good deal on an HP prodesk i5-8500 (Gen 8 hexacore) from ebay (after offer) for $349 shipped with 2 1/2 yrs warranty - HP ProDesk 400 G5 SFF i5-8500 3.00GHz 8GB DDR4 240GB SSD Win10 Warranty 2022 | eBay . I'll of course add a WD purple HD.
For the money given the options, I think the $349 is worth it given I am getting almost new hardware, 2 1/2 yr warranty, a case that fits my space, and plenty of processing power.
The Dahua NVR I was looking at from Andy is about $300, and it just doesn't make sense to me to save the $50 difference + poe switch cost just to get something I probably won't be satisfied with.
Do you guys think my reasoning makes sense here? I'm new to the whole Blue Iris thing, but I have been building/troubleshooting PCs for 20yrs.
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