Hardware Req for 16-20 3MP Cams
- Thread starter ptech
- Start date
I'd recommend, for the CPU, i7-4790 or i7-6700 (or their respective overclockable versions). 8-16 GB RAM. Windows 8 or 10. No need for a dedicated graphics card.
Q™
IPCT Contributor
I run 20 2MP, 3MP and 4MP cameras on an i7-3770 and BI runs great. However, I would most definitely take BP2008's advise and go with an i7 4790 or 6700 to enjoy the benefits of BI hardware acceleration.
Yup, i7-3770k here, and I'm sure it would handle the load fine thanks to hardware acceleration. Even the i7-2xxx series works with hardware acceleration. I only mention the newer CPUs specifically because they are newer and supposedly more energy efficient.
PSPCommOp
Getting the hang of it
Around 25% with these cams and frame rates with Blue Iris in service mode with the user interface closed:
This is with all but the two PTZs using intel hardware accelerated decoding. I leave it off for the PTZs because it adds a small amount of video delay which is noticeable when controlling a PTZ camera. So when you run all cams at 15 FPS, you could expect usage to be somewhat higher than 25%.
With the user interface open, CPU usage goes up, and the amount varies depending on the size of the Blue Iris window. Full screen on 2560x1440 monitor (this is nearly twice the pixels of a 1920x1080 monitor), with no live preview frame rate limit, my CPU usage goes up to 50%. It used to be higher (about 60 or 65% I think), but it turns out the one thing a dedicated graphics card can do for Blue Iris is reduce the CPU usage of the user interface. I added an Nvidia GTX 950 card so I could get full refresh rate on the monitor, and in doing so, I was surprised with this drop in CPU usage. It is important to remember the CPU usage drop was ONLY with the Blue Iris user interface open. It has not affected CPU usage when the user interface is closed so that Blue Iris is only running in the background.
This is with all but the two PTZs using intel hardware accelerated decoding. I leave it off for the PTZs because it adds a small amount of video delay which is noticeable when controlling a PTZ camera. So when you run all cams at 15 FPS, you could expect usage to be somewhat higher than 25%.
With the user interface open, CPU usage goes up, and the amount varies depending on the size of the Blue Iris window. Full screen on 2560x1440 monitor (this is nearly twice the pixels of a 1920x1080 monitor), with no live preview frame rate limit, my CPU usage goes up to 50%. It used to be higher (about 60 or 65% I think), but it turns out the one thing a dedicated graphics card can do for Blue Iris is reduce the CPU usage of the user interface. I added an Nvidia GTX 950 card so I could get full refresh rate on the monitor, and in doing so, I was surprised with this drop in CPU usage. It is important to remember the CPU usage drop was ONLY with the Blue Iris user interface open. It has not affected CPU usage when the user interface is closed so that Blue Iris is only running in the background.
Hmm, that is quite a jump for recording with direct to disk. I wonder why it goes up that much?
Q™
IPCT Contributor
I dunno bro but let me know if you have any ideas.
It's simple - just get an i5-3570 or higher with 8GB of memory. With those cameras and settings, Windows 8 or Windows 10 running with hardware-decoding enabled in BI, should put you around 50% CPU usage on the 4-thread CPU.
i7 is useless. Before I had hardware-decoding, I'd enable one camera at a time and watch the CPU usage. Once it approached 50% CPU usage, the total CPU usage shot up to 100% and the system became very unresponsive. Hyperthreading really does not help the BI workload. The Core-i 3rd-gen 3000-series made a big improvement in power usage, so it's worth it over the 2nd-gen 2000-series. Anything newer won't be a noticeable improvement on performance or power usage - they all clock to about the same frequencies and in most tasks the improvement is around 5% per generation.
My i7-3770 system idles at 14.5W with 8GB of memory and 16GB with 16GB. Runs my 13-cameras at 35W. Some of the newer NUCs may even handle the 20-cameras fine, consuming even less power and taking up less space. You'd still have to decide where to record the data.
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Thanks for the input everyone. Currently looking at this system unless I can find a better deal.
fenderman
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That is a bad deal....you can get Dell optiplex for less...or a skylake optiplex for a few dollars more.
That is fairly good. Better deals do exist from time to time on the dell outlet. I've seen as low as $430 for a comparable system, although you pay tax on it. Usually the dell systems have 4 or 8 GB of RAM and 500 GB or smaller drives, but the warranties on their business desktops start at 3 years of in-home service.
I agree with others - not a good price. That system is 2-years old. I recently picked up an identical, but 8GB memory, "used" business-class i7-4790 system for $240. It even came with a mid-range workstation graphics card (not useful for BI, but could be an easy sell for $50+)
For $500 you can grab a newer system with 3-year warranty. At $500, an i5-6600 would equal or better the 4790 in BI-usage, as again, hyperthreading doesn't seem to help the BI workload. I use direct-to-disk though - not sure if hyperthreading will help BI with its re-encoding algorithm. Technically it could, but if you're using hardware-acceleration, I doubt there is any benefit of a 4-core/8-thread i7 over a 4-core i5.
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Q™
IPCT Contributor
I bought a Dell 7040MT i7-6700 from this guy. The mini-tower form factor is very small and quiet as a mouse, both big pluses imo. The seller has a 100% feedback rating. He shipped mine fast. There is a 3-year Dell warranty. Use the SSD as the system drive and the internal 500GB drive as the BI video repository. This is a terrific machine which -- after the BIOS boot routine -- loads the Win10 OS in a couple of heartbeats. A+++ imo.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3620-MiniTower-Intel-6th-Gen-i7-6700-16GB-256GB-SSD-500GB-HDD-/232008713246?hash=item3604cc041e:g:nUEAAOSw6btXRRjU
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3620-MiniTower-Intel-6th-Gen-i7-6700-16GB-256GB-SSD-500GB-HDD-/232008713246?hash=item3604cc041e:g:nUEAAOSw6btXRRjU
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That is a crazy deal!
Q™
IPCT Contributor
My guess is that they are "open box" systems. My machine looked -- for all intents and purposes -- brand spankin' new; it came with NCS bro.
Refurb itself doesn't mean much now days. Manufacturer refurb normally looks new. Everything else is basically used.
Not much of an issue with PCs though. If a PC isn't 10+ years old, it should last for many years without a single component going bad. Many "refurb" on places like ebay may be off-lease business-class systems with some marks in the case, but they're often $1k+ when new, with better build quality (case, psu, pcb thickness, capacitors, etc) than consumer-level prebuilts that aim for the lowest price.