Dipping my toes in the water…

JRdabbler

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Hello, I’ve been lurking for a few days reading the wiki, reading responses to newbie posters, thought I’d create an account and introduce myself.

I am currently an owner of a ring pro doorbell, and looking to expand my surveillance at my newish house (been here a year already).

I am here, because I a pretty sure I don’t want to continue to expand my system with ring, although it is so tempting to just have something with low effort that allows me to observe, but as with most, my desire to identify if needed seems like it would be best, and take a step beyond the “cool factor”. And false piece of mind.

I have been dabbling with unifi for my home networking needs, and originally thought I wanted to go unifi protect, but after a little research it seems to me that what you pay vs what you get is a little steep.

I have a unifi dream machine and 24 port poe switch. I THINK I have everything I need as far as being able to set up the appropriate network settings (VPN?)

I read through the wiki once, and a few other things. I’m a little overwhelmed, my networking experience/knowledge is rather limited, I’m pretty confident with some practice I can figure things out though.

where I’m at right now, is looking for a decent computer and a good first variable camera to start my journey, and build from there.

im in a bit of an analysis paralysis, do I buy a cheap pc to start with, and regret not going bigger? Or blow my whole budget on a pc and leave next To nothing for cameras?

ive Done a rookie layout of my house and based on my limited knowledge I think an ideal set up would be around 7 cameras.

I don’t really have a budget, but just for starting purposes I think I would feel comfortable STARTING with maybe 500-700.00usd. And maybe 100-200 a month for a camera and build at that pace.

Any guidance or reassurance by someone who has been down a road similar to mine would be appreciated. Thank you!
 

Geewiz

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My recommendation:
If at all possible, run cat 5 network cable to all the points you would like to install video surveillance. Buy a good, used i7 Windows 10 box to run Blue Iris for around $250 from ebay. You've already got the POE switch. Amcrest makes for some nice POE powered IP cams for around $100 each. With $700 you have a nice start to a great little system that you can grow.

This is what I've done with my new home build and am running 7 cameras from 5 points around the exterior of the house and am quite happy with the setup.

My understanding with Ring is that once you buy into their ecosystem, you're pretty much locked in to paying fees for the type of services you'd get with a DIY Blue Iris system.
 

JRdabbler

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My recommendation:
If at all possible, run cat 5 network cable to all the points you would like to install video surveillance. Buy a good, used i7 Windows 10 box to run Blue Iris for around $250 from ebay. You've already got the POE switch. Amcrest makes for some nice POE powered IP cams for around $100 each. With $700 you have a nice start to a great little system that you can grow.

This is what I've done with my new home build and am running 7 cameras from 5 points around the exterior of the house and am quite happy with the setup.

My understanding with Ring is that once you buy into their ecosystem, you're pretty much locked in to paying fees for the type of services you'd get with a DIY Blue Iris system.
thanks for the reply, looking at the wiki: I’ll search for an i7 6700/7700 it’s in the “good” category and looks like it should fit my needs nicely.
 

sebastiantombs

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Just remember that Amcrest is actually Dahua with features removed and other steps taken to lower the cost. Dahaua firmware can be installed on some, maybe not all, Amcrest cameras to regain functionality, but there is always the possibility of creating a brick from the camera if the upgrade goes wrong. YMMV
 

JRdabbler

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Just remember that Amcrest is actually Dahua with features removed and other steps taken to lower the cost. Dahaua firmware can be installed on some, maybe not all, Amcrest cameras to regain functionality, but there is always the possibility of creating a brick from the camera if the upgrade goes wrong. YMMV
thank you for this info! Given my luck track record, I’ll likely avoid testing my mileage. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
 

Flintstone61

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Here is an example of a nice form factor than can carry 2 full size Hdd's and an SSD. The only downside might be if you wanted to Upgrade to Windows 11. BUT, this same computer one generation newer with the 8th gen CPU, ( the one I have) is W11 ready. Because I've been nagged a couple times by Microsoft to let me know my PC can run W11.

HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF i7-7700 3.6GHz 16GB RAM 256GB SSD Win10 Pro DVD-RW | eBay

 
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Flintstone61

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if you want a bigger tower, I would look at the Dell precision 3630. it's also win 11 capable, and can tolerate a full sized graphics card ( if you wanted to experiment)
 
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Flintstone61

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Dammit all! $380 ! I paid too much LOL. ( well I got 32GB ram) but a smaller SSD 256) $397 thats a good price for a tower than can house 3 - 3.5" drives.
Screenshot 2022-03-08 155813.png

dammitall.jpg
 

Flintstone61

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Yeah it was. i paid $525 plus fucking $26 tax. Thats what I get for staying up till 2:00 Am lurking around on ebay.
I'm gonna do a Speccy check on it. This thing is so clean, mfr date November 8 2019, it looks almost like its hardly been run. Case has a couple cosmetic scratches by the door release handle.
It's a very upgradeable tower. can run Xeon processors, i7 8th and 9th gen. also i9-9900 8Core 16 thread chips, up to128GB of Ram, and 3 available Power supply sizes. something like 300 W / 460 W & 850 W PSU's
 
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JRdabbler

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Yeah it was. i paid $525 plus fucking $26 tax. Thats what I get for staying up till 2:00 Am lurking around on ebay.
I'm gonna do a Speccy check on it. This thing is so clean, mfr date November 8 2019, it looks almost like its hardly been run. Case has a couple cosmetic scratches by the door release handle.
Haven’t touched a big manufacturer pc in quite sometime, is a tower like that similar to the sff pcs? What I mean is, is it all proprietary and won’t fit inside a regular tower?
 

Flintstone61

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the sff's are more proprietary, esp the Optiplex's coming out over the last 5-6 years. instead of regular ATX Motherboard power connector they shrunk it down to an 8 pin. This 3630 model uses a standard size PSU. The I/O shield area is proprietary on the case.
I use to build them up. I'd buy a case, buy a board, buy Windows, Buy ram etc. But when I look on ebay, it's cheaper to buy a Dell or HP with a Pro OS already licensed to the machine. and I've had good luck with Dell Optiplex towers for parts availability. I've kept my sons restaurant running on Optiplex parts for 8 years now.
 
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Flintstone61

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but to answer your question, The Precision motherboard and PSU would fit in a standard size tower. but the pin out for the Power on / Front I/O headers would be a challenge. Here's an Old AMD Full tower, next to a 7010 Optiplex Sff, the 3630, and a USFF 7020
towers.jpg
 

Flintstone61

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So the Precision Tower packs a lot into that space. and it's size is surprisingly compact compared to the 7010 and the 7020. The Precision fans( 2 come with stock build) were very quiet.
 

mat200

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Hello, I’ve been lurking for a few days reading the wiki, reading responses to newbie posters, thought I’d create an account and introduce myself.

I am currently an owner of a ring pro doorbell, and looking to expand my surveillance at my newish house (been here a year already).

I am here, because I a pretty sure I don’t want to continue to expand my system with ring, although it is so tempting to just have something with low effort that allows me to observe, but as with most, my desire to identify if needed seems like it would be best, and take a step beyond the “cool factor”. And false piece of mind.

I have been dabbling with unifi for my home networking needs, and originally thought I wanted to go unifi protect, but after a little research it seems to me that what you pay vs what you get is a little steep.

I have a unifi dream machine and 24 port poe switch. I THINK I have everything I need as far as being able to set up the appropriate network settings (VPN?)

I read through the wiki once, and a few other things. I’m a little overwhelmed, my networking experience/knowledge is rather limited, I’m pretty confident with some practice I can figure things out though.

where I’m at right now, is looking for a decent computer and a good first variable camera to start my journey, and build from there.

im in a bit of an analysis paralysis, do I buy a cheap pc to start with, and regret not going bigger? Or blow my whole budget on a pc and leave next To nothing for cameras?

ive Done a rookie layout of my house and based on my limited knowledge I think an ideal set up would be around 7 cameras.

I don’t really have a budget, but just for starting purposes I think I would feel comfortable STARTING with maybe 500-700.00usd. And maybe 100-200 a month for a camera and build at that pace.

Any guidance or reassurance by someone who has been down a road similar to mine would be appreciated. Thank you!
Welcome @JRdabbler

As you are a new home owner, I recommend buying any copper wire / pipe soon before the prices go up more ... ( metals jumped in prices )

For ca5e/6 look for quality bulk cable with solid wires .. I'd pick up 2-3 boxes as I like to pull with someone helping me straight from the box .. ( using a N+1 rule I try to run one extra line for each location .. )

If you have a larger home or need to run a lot of inside runs also, perhaps pick up a couple more boxes .. ( each box I picked up is 1000' )

We should have various threads on the type of cable to pick up. ( not CCA, .. look for in wall rated .. ABG 23 or 24G )
 

Flintstone61

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Whther you go NVR or BI-PC yeah, you need cabling first. :)
And don't get a noisy POE switch. Plenty of Fanless POE switches out there for running 7 cameras. But factor in your devices and you may need a few more ports for all the hardware.
 

jrbeddow

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Here is an example of a nice form factor than can carry 2 full size Hdd's and an SSD. The only downside might be if you wanted to Upgrade to Windows 11. BUT, this same computer one generation newer with the 8th gen CPU, ( the one I have) is W11 ready. Because I've been nagged a couple times by Microsoft to let me know my PC can run W11.

HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF i7-7700 3.6GHz 16GB RAM 256GB SSD Win10 Pro DVD-RW | eBay

Just wanted to add one more endorsement to these HP Elitedesk G4 systems with the i5-8500 (second link), I just built my Blue Iris system out with exactly one of these and could not be happier with this machine. Very low power consumption too, as I had hoped, for regions where electricity costs are high.
 
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