HP Elitedesk SFF G4

As an eBay Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
As an eBay Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
I’m looking at grabbing an HP Prodesk i7-8700 refurb with 8 megs of ram and 1TB internal which I’d swap for a 500MB SSD and add a bit more ram. 1’year warranty $650 for machine prior to drive swap. I’ve also got an Elitedesk same basic specs but with 16 megs of ram and 500MB SSD I may place an offer on for about $650.

Planned cameras total 18 Dahua 2MP Starlights.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TL1096r
Sounds like a good setup.

My i5-8500 g4 is running (2) 4K 8MP and it was at 140-160F mostly. I added an outside USB fan now and it is down to 120-135F... I hope it was just the fan. It says i5 should only get up to 160F so I feel something is going on with my setup. I hope to get temperature lower before adding more cameras.
 
As an eBay Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
ThomasPI said:
Scored what I think was a great deal on an HP Elitedesk SFF i7-8700 with 32 megs of ram, a 256 and 512 SSD and 2 1/2 yrs of warranty remaining on eBay for $650. It’s got an NVIDIA card in it which I’m thinking needs to be removed due to issues with BI ?

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF i7 8700 3.2Ghz 32GB RAM 256GB SSD 500GB SSD Quadro P620 | eBay
Click to expand...

I think someone got it working with BI. I think issue is higher power usage and disabling Intel GPU which disabled Quick Sync. Someone might have more info.
 
As an eBay Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
  • Like
Reactions: ThomasPI
TL1096r said:
Why would this not be a good blue iris machine - just due to not having internal storage for HDD? I feel NAS would fix this?
HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Desktop Computer - Core i7 i7-8700T - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD | eBay
Click to expand...

fenderman said:
you always want to record to local fast storage.
Click to expand...

There ya go. Keep looking on eBay. Machine I just bought had 2 listed and sold in less than 12 hours. I looked daily for weeks, you’ll find one and don’t settle or you’ll kick yourself in the arse.
 
As an eBay Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
ThomasPI said:
There ya go. Keep looking on eBay. Machine I just bought had 2 listed and sold in less than 12 hours. I looked daily for weeks, you’ll find one and don’t settle or you’ll kick yourself in the arse.
Click to expand...

Yes I have a i7-8700 already. I am trying to do a setup for someone and just looking for a smaller option with external drive.

fenderman said:
you always want to record to local fast storage.
Click to expand...

This makes sense and figured. Would a Thunderbolt adapter be something that is doable?
 
The issue isn’t going to be recording speed of the nas - lots of people running blue iris and recording to both external drives & NAS. You don’t need thunderbolt or even usb 3.1 speeds for that.

The (theoretical) issue is the “t” series processor they put in the micro/tiny form factor pc’s. To get ultra-low power consumption, the “t” series processors run at a lower clock speed than a non “t” processor & also throttle themselves when they get warm ... so, theoretically at least, an 8700t is more likely to choke when you load it down fully with cams for a sustained period of time.

I don’t think anyone knows (yet) if there’s enough processor there at the lower clock speed to run the kind of data through one that you expect an i7 to run. Pretty obvious they’ll run a few cameras - just no one really knows at this point how many cameras “a few is”.

I’m personally in love with the tiny/micro form-factor EliteDesks & ProDesks.. I bought an i5-8500t micro/tiny form factor & a toshiba survellance drive to mount externally & tinker with via blue iris, but I haven’t got a gaggle of cameras online yet to torture-test it with. A couple cheap cams at max bitrate doesn’t seem to fluster it so far- not sure where it’s gonna hit a wall.. I think there’s definitely a use-case for tiny blue iris pc’s stashed in places a burglar would never look or that would not be easily accessible in the average time a burglar spends in your home. The micro form factors usually include gigabit lan, wireless lan, Bluetooth & hdmi - so configurations where the micro is literally physically inaccessible to the owner are possible - it can output to a tv & be updated via the wireless lan and controlled with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Bottom line, the SFF is cheap, reliable & a known quantity - and it doesn’t have the “t” processor. You can go back to the 6700 (non “t”) processors in SFF form & run a dozen cams recording to two 3.5” drives in one box, with no gymnastics- and the box can be had on eBay for $250 or less, or more - if you want/need a 7700 or 8700.. if you’re spending someone else’s money, probably a safer bet to go with the known quantity.

A side benefit of the older / cheaper hardware is that it’s so godawful homely that I’m guessing your average meth-addicted burglar is going to know that the pawn shop won’t even buy it for $10.
 
Last edited:
ICUatnight said:
The issue isn’t going to be recording speed of the nas - lots of people running blue iris and recording to both external drives & NAS. You don’t need thunderbolt or even usb 3.1 speeds for that.

The (theoretical) issue is the “t” series processor they put in the micro/tiny form factor pc’s. To get ultra-low power consumption, the “t” series processors run at a lower clock speed than a non “t” processor & also throttle themselves when they get warm ... so, theoretically at least, an 8700t is more likely to choke when you load it down fully with cams for a sustained period of time.

I don’t think anyone knows (yet) if there’s enough processor there at the lower clock speed to run the kind of data through one that you expect an i7 to run. Pretty obvious they’ll run a few cameras - just no one really knows at this point how many cameras “a few is”.

I’m personally in love with the tiny/micro form-factor EliteDesks & ProDesks.. I bought an i5-8500t micro/tiny form factor & a toshiba survellance drive to mount externally & tinker with via blue iris, but I haven’t got a gaggle of cameras online yet to torture-test it with. A couple cheap cams at max bitrate doesn’t seem to fluster it so far- not sure where it’s gonna hit a wall.. I think there’s definitely a use-case for tiny blue iris pc’s stashed in places a burglar would never look or that would not be easily accessible in the average time a burglar spends in your home. The micro form factors usually include gigabit lan, wireless lan, Bluetooth & hdmi - so configurations where the micro is literally physically inaccessible to the owner are possible - it can output to a tv & be updated via the wireless lan and controlled with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Bottom line, the SFF is cheap, reliable & a known quantity - and it doesn’t have the “t” processor. You can go back to the 6700 (non “t”) processors in SFF form & run a dozen cams recording to two 3.5” drives in one box, with no gymnastics- and the box can be had on eBay for $250 or less, or more - if you want/need a 7700 or 8700.. if you’re spending someone else’s money, probably a safer bet to go with the known quantity.

A side benefit of the older / cheaper hardware is that it’s so godawful homely that I’m guessing your average meth-addicted burglar is going to know that the pawn shop won’t even buy it for $10.
Click to expand...

Thanks good to know. What are the kB/s and MP/s on the i5-8500t? What is your CPU % at?
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
Oceanslider said:
What was the final configuration of the drives you installed in this computer? Your Elitedesk has two M.2 slots, correct? Did you use them both?

Was this PC to be a dedicated Blue Iris PC only? Or are you also using it for other tasks?
Click to expand...

I can tell you it is dedicated for BI only. All BI machines should be and are on this forum.

Only 1 m.2 slot. You do not need 2. You only need 1 to load windows and bi files db. And clips on a purple HDD for example.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Oceanslider
TL1096r said:
I can tell you it is dedicated for BI only. All BI machines should be and are on this forum.

Only 1 m.2 slot. You do not need 2. You only need 1 to load windows and bi files db. And clips on a purple HDD for example.
Click to expand...
He said he was getting “these...drives” plural. So I just assumed he was getting 2 for some reason. Because the picture in his first post there are indeed 2 - M.2 Slots.
 
Last edited:
Oceanslider said:
He said he was getting “these...drives” plural. So I just assumed he was getting 2 for some reason. Because the picture in his first post there are indeed 2 - M.2 Slots.
Click to expand...

which post? not sure why he would maybe if he did he can explain but from what i researched on these forums only 1 drive is required and 2 is a waste as you only need 1 for the windows and db files for bi.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom