Excellent outcome with Blue Iris on an iMac 27" (Late 2013) running Windows 11

[danioj]

Hi All,

I just wanted to document the excellent outcome I have had running Blue Iris in Windows 11 on a now unsupported (for latest OSX software) iMac 27" (Late 2013) running Windows 11.

My BI setup is 8 4MP Dahua POE cameras recording 24x7 and archiving after 24 hours to a storage drive.

I had been running BI in Windows 10 on an old Dell Optiplex 7050 running 7th Gen i5 7500 with quick sync, SSD, internal 3TB storage drive and it was absolutely fine. My only real issue was I was running headless using RDP to see the GUI or access via the web interface or mobile app.

I got tired of using unsupported methods to update my iMac to the latest OSX (due to the iMac model no longer being supported due age) so I upgraded. It seemed a great shame to just recycle out the iMac or sell it for nothing (and I had no other purpose for it).

The iMac is still a fine machine, has a dedicated Nvidia GPU and had also had a 1TB SSD upgrade some time ago. Long story short, I saw it as a perfect replacement for the Optiplex that would also give me a great display to use removing the need to RDP etc.

Long story short, I installed Windows 11 (using a USB prep method to include bypass TPM, CPU checks etc) to the iMac over OSX (ie not via Boot Camp), installed BootCamp drivers for supportability, Installed BI, migrated settings (used the opportunity to renew my support), setup start as service and the result is absolutely perfect and hardware usage is very low - comparable to the Optiplex.

Looking at the cost of these machines now - which are really low due to Apple considering them unsupported - they are a real viable and cost effective option (especially if you consider built in 27" monitor) for a Blue Iris NVR machine.

Hope this is useful to anyone considering their next build.

Happy to answer any questions.

Ta

D

 

[fenderman]

There are several reasons this is not an efficient solution. First your onboard storage is limited. USB/NAS is simply not a reliable solution. Second, those old macs use i5-4xxx processors that are old and stale by todays standards. You can buy a machine with that processor for 50 bux with a full windows license. Another 50 bux buys you a 27" monitor. For 150 you can buy an 8th gen intel system with full windows license that will run circles around the mac.
With the apple you need to spend 2-300 on a 10 year old obsolete piece of hardware. Then, you must pay 100+ for a windows license.

 

[danioj]

There are several reasons this is not an efficient solution. First your onboard storage is limited. USB/NAS is simply not a reliable solution. Second, those old macs use i5-4xxx processors that are old and stale by todays standards. You can buy a machine with that processor for 50 bux with a full windows license. Another 50 bux buys you a 27" monitor. For 150 you can buy an 8th gen intel system with full windows license that will run circles around the mac.
With the apple you need to spend 2-300 on a 10 year old obsolete piece of hardware. Then, you must pay 100+ for a windows license.

Fair enough, if those costs are achievable then can't argue with the maths.

Re the USB / NAS position, I haven't done any testing, all I can say is my experience using them in a few years has not cause me issues.

Maybe my use case is more relevant for those who already own the iMac and are not investing any more $$.

 

[fenderman]

Fair enough, if those costs are achievable then can't argue with the maths.

All day long on ebay. Even if you owned a mac you would need to legally purchase a copy of windows. usb will cause problems.

 

[danioj]

All day long on ebay. Even if you owned a mac you would need to legally purchase a copy of windows. usb will cause problems.

Good point. I already had that too. So it was a zero extra cost for me but wouldn't necessarily be so for others.