Uisng H.264 is certainly less desirable because it will use more network bandwidth. But if I am only running a handful of ip cameras, will it really be noticeable?
That would depend on how robust your network is and your personal life. If you're like any other common household you'll have people constantly streaming something from: Music, YouTube, NetFlix, etc. You add on something that's constantly streaming from a camera to a NVR.
Expect there to be some bottlenecks . . .
1-4 cameras I can't see that being a real issue but than again there's a reason why lots of the top performing VMS / NVR software require more powerful computer systems. In part the people who code this software are lazy and its all about bloat and never ever thinking about using what's required and no more.
On the other side of the spectrum if you find something that's
Lean & Mean more often than not its lacking all of the important features other more bloatware has. I'd be interested to learn how your journey goes with a less powerful computer system as my goal is for a ultra low power system too!
Eager to learn how your experience goes because I have no problems spinning up a test machine if only to learn if something can't vs can. Than again, my time is limited so I have to find balance in fun vs this is yet another job!