Drug Dealer spec rig?

[noobeee]

Ok excuse my attempt at humour on my first post please!

• I'm a lifelong Synology Surveillance Station user.
• I have 24x Hikvision 8mp cameras all dumping footage to a 90TB Synology NAS with a 10gbe link.
• If it helps, I'm also a proficient Mac user, who can get by (at a basic level) on Windows but don't enjoy it.
• I have a small 12u open rack for all of my gear at home, with some space on the top shelf.
• I recently had an unfortunate incident at home, and realised whilst searching for footage that I really dislike surveillance station.
• I've tried using other solutions such as SecuritySpy (which I ran on my Mac Studio) but found there was lot of times it simply let me down also.

Everyone I speak to recommends Blue Iris, so I decided to give it a go. I tried virtualizing it on my mac, and that didn't work at all, maybe because I used the ARM version of windows, not sure.
I have a very old Intel Nuc and tried it with that and loved it, but the NUC really struggled.
So I've decided to invest and buy a "compact" rig (mac mini sized) for my Blue Iris setup.

So here's the question.....
If you were in my shoes (24 cameras, 10gbe NAS, 12u of filled space) with a $3500 budget, what hardware would you run Blue Iris on?
Currently I'm thinking of this:

https://simplynuc.co.uk/product/nuc12snki7-full/

I'd love to hear from you all on what you'd go for.
My aim is to set it up and not replace the hardware for 5ish years ideally.

I appreciate any advice you have for me.

Thanks everyone!

 

[wittaj]

I would stay away from a NUC as they are not designed for the 24/7 operation. We have seen too many people come here with problems with NUCs, and you are experiencing it with one you had.

$3,500 is way overkill for a BI system.

Not sure what the refurb market is over there, but in the states we can get by with a refurb small form factor (SFF) for under $250ish dollars....

Many of us buy refurbished computers that are business class computers that have come off lease. The one I bought I kid you not I could not tell that it was a refurbished unit - not a speck of dust or dents or scratches on it. It appeared to me like everything was replaced and I would assume just the motherboard with the intel processor is what was from the original unit. I went with the lowest end processor on the WIKI list as it was the cheapest and it runs my system fine.

A member here a couple months ago found a refurbished 4th generation for less than $150USD that came with Win10 PRO, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB drive.

Look for an 8th generation SFF with 16GB RAM and you will be fine for a lot less.

 

[noobeee]

Thanks @wittaj appreciate the response.
Being a non-windows user, I wanted to stay away from the minefield that is refurbs and in particular ebay due to being burnt in the past before and also to reduce complexity.
Also my home insurer has agreed to pay for the new NVR up to $3.5k so i need to provide them with a proper receipt with VAT on it.

The other limiting factor here is that I've got a small shelf to put this on.

I would stay away from a NUC as they are not designed for the 24/7 operation. We have seen too many people come here with problems with NUCs, and you are experiencing it with one you had.

$3,500 is way overkill for a BI system.

Not sure what the refurb market is over there, but in the states we can get by with a refurb small form factor (SFF) for under $250ish dollars....

Many of us buy refurbished computers that are business class computers that have come off lease. The one I bought I kid you not I could not tell that it was a refurbished unit - not a speck of dust or dents or scratches on it. It appeared to me like everything was replaced and I would assume just the motherboard with the intel processor is what was from the original unit. I went with the lowest end processor on the WIKI list as it was the cheapest and it runs my system fine.

A member here a couple months ago found a refurbished 4th generation for less than $150USD that came with Win10 PRO, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB drive.

Look for an 8th generation SFF with 16GB RAM and you will be fine for a lot less.

 

[The Automation Guy]

Does the computer have to be turn key, or can you buy separate components for it? Specifically I'm talking about hard drives.

As others have mentioned, BI doesn't take that powerful of a machine to run on - even with 24 cameras. I suspect just about any mid level CPU will work just fine. However you do want to spend money on getting good quality hard drives that are designed for 24/7/365 reads/writes. The average consumer hard drive does not meet this requirement. You really need server grade hard drives. You'll also want to make sure your hardware can support SATA drives because that is generally what these server quality drives are going to have.

 

[bp2008]

I tried virtualizing it on my mac, and that didn't work at all, maybe because I used the ARM version of windows, not sure.

That would be it. Blue Iris is not built for the ARM instruction set since it is extremely rare to find a decent Windows PC running on ARM.

If you'd like a rackmount solution, there are some pretty nice Ryzen 5000 series 1U server barebones from AsrockRack. Take this one for example: Asrock Rack 1U4LW-X570/2L2T RPSU 1U Rackmount Server Barebone AMD AM4 Ryzen PGA | eBay Dual power supplies, 4x hot swap HDD bays (3.5 inch compatible) in the front, 10 gig networking, not that you need it because you definitely don't for a Blue Iris box. I would expect it to be a bit noisy though. Cheaper and quieter to build in a 4U chassis.

If you want something prebuilt, it is a lot harder to find a rackmount system at a sane price that isn't at least 5 years old already. Because most rackmount prebuilts use Xeon/Epyc and they are overpriced for the performance you get, plain and simple.

 

[noobeee]

That would be it. Blue Iris is not built for the ARM instruction set since it is extremely rare to find a decent Windows PC running on ARM.

If you'd like a rackmount solution, there are some pretty nice Ryzen 5000 series 1U server barebones from AsrockRack. Take this one for example: Asrock Rack 1U4LW-X570/2L2T RPSU 1U Rackmount Server Barebone AMD AM4 Ryzen PGA | eBay Dual power supplies, 4x hot swap HDD bays (3.5 inch compatible) in the front, 10 gig networking, not that you need it because you definitely don't for a Blue Iris box. I would expect it to be a bit noisy though. Cheaper and quieter to build in a 4U chassis.

If you want something prebuilt, it is a lot harder to find a rackmount system at a sane price that isn't at least 5 years old already. Because most rackmount prebuilts use Xeon/Epyc and they are overpriced for the performance you get, plain and simple.

This actually looks great!
I have to say I've found setting up a windows machine for Blue Iris to be such a headache. For example this one you've linked runs on an AMD chip. I can't see anywhere that advises me on how it'll perform with deepstack ai and blueiris in general.

Any pointers on that?

 

[Flintstone61]

@Corvus85 ....He built a NUC.....i think he ironed out his issues with running a 2.5 video storage drive,,,,he might have some interesting info about his experience running a NUC

 

[Jim I.]

Ok excuse my attempt at humour on my first post please!

• I'm a lifelong Synology Surveillance Station user.
• I have 24x Hikvision 8mp cameras all dumping footage to a 90TB Synology NAS with a 10gbe link.
• If it helps, I'm also a proficient Mac user, who can get by (at a basic level) on Windows but don't enjoy it.
• I have a small 12u open rack for all of my gear at home, with some space on the top shelf.
• I recently had an unfortunate incident at home, and realised whilst searching for footage that I really dislike surveillance station.
• I've tried using other solutions such as SecuritySpy (which I ran on my Mac Studio) but found there was lot of times it simply let me down also.

Everyone I speak to recommends Blue Iris, so I decided to give it a go. I tried virtualizing it on my mac, and that didn't work at all, maybe because I used the ARM version of windows, not sure.
I have a very old Intel Nuc and tried it with that and loved it, but the NUC really struggled.
So I've decided to invest and buy a "compact" rig (mac mini sized) for my Blue Iris setup.

So here's the question.....
If you were in my shoes (24 cameras, 10gbe NAS, 12u of filled space) with a $3500 budget, what hardware would you run Blue Iris on?
Currently I'm thinking of this:

https://simplynuc.co.uk/product/nuc12snki7-full/

View attachment 143837

I'd love to hear from you all on what you'd go for.
My aim is to set it up and not replace the hardware for 5ish years ideally.

I appreciate any advice you have for me.

Thanks everyone!

Just curious, after using Surveillance Station for so long, what kind of problem did you have with S.S when you had an incident at home? I just finished installing 5 outdoor IP cameras and am debating using the Synology Diskstation that I already own, or firing up my old Dell Optiplex 3040 and install Blue Iris.

 

[noobeee]

Just curious, after using Surveillance Station for so long, what kind of problem did you have with S.S when you had an incident at home? I just finished installing 5 outdoor IP cameras and am debating using the Synology Diskstation that I already own, or firing up my old Dell Optiplex 3040 and install Blue Iris.

SS doesn't have people, object, vehicle or animal detection, just basic motion or light changes.
It relies on the cameras to do all of that stuff and trigger those events (that's problematic in itself) but the challenge with this approach is that if you enable H264+ or H265 on Hikvision cameras, then all that smart detection functionality gets disabled.

SS updated and changed the settings on all my cameras to H265, disabling smart detection.
Something occurred and it wasn't captured by SS at all. Thankfully my Nest doorbell did capture some of it.

I put in a ticket with Synology who acknowledged the fault, and apologised but offered no explanation or solution. They agreed it shouldn't have happened and recognised multiple threads on their forums of it happening to others, but don't know why it happens.
The issue is that even without an update, if your NAS restarts it can sometimes change settings inside SS.
For the amount of money I've spent on licensing and hardware, I shouldn't have those kinds of issues so decided to move over to BI.

 

[looney2ns]

I would suggest for that many 8mp cams something like this,

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-pro-small-form-factor-400-g9-desktop-pc-p-6c191ua-aba-1?jumpid=ma_weekly-smb-deals_product-tile_business-desktops_34_6c191ua_hp-pro-small-form-fa

with 32gbs ram, and proper WD Purple drives.

Or this:

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-pro-small-form-factor-400-g9-desktop-pc-p-6c194ua-aba-1

They are very small and energy efficient.

 

[noobeee]

I would suggest for that many 8mp cams something like this,

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-pro-small-form-factor-400-g9-desktop-pc-p-6c191ua-aba-1?jumpid=ma_weekly-smb-deals_product-tile_business-desktops_34_6c191ua_hp-pro-small-form-fa

with 32gbs ram, and proper WD Purple drives.
They are very small and energy efficient.

Thanks, it looks like its using integrated gfx. How does that fare with deepstack?

 

[Corvus85]

@Corvus85 ....He built a NUC.....i think he ironed out his issues with running a 2.5 video storage drive,,,,he might have some interesting info about his experience running a NUC

I didn't end up buying a NUC - that was only the first idea I had. Ended up building a system in an In Win Chopin chassis, which I had to slightly modify to accommodate a 3.5' WD Purple HDD.

 

[Flintstone61]

oh...Nevermind.....