Intel NUC i5 vs i7 for NVR ?

[Radioman]

Hello all.

I am in the process of putting together a home use video surveillance system with approximately 6 (3 MP Hikvision) cameras. I have settled on using a PC based approach rather than a NVR (limited for what you get) or a Synology NAS (seem under-powered and finicky). I would like to be able to use an Intel NUC device based on size and power consumption. This would be the NUC's only job and it would be equipped with 16GB RAM, 250 GB SSD for booting and 2TB HDD. Software being considered is Blue Iris, Milestone and Exacq. I am favoring Milestone however I have not downloaded any demo versions of software as of yet. Remote access from outside the house is also a must.

I was leaning towards the NUC6i5SYH which appears robust enough for the task and from research seems to run cooler and be more power efficient than the i7 version. If need I could also go to the NUC5i7RYH which use the i7 processor running at a higher clock speed.

I would be interested in opinions regarding which Intel NUC would be appropriate and does anyone have one of these models in operation ?

Thanks so much

 

[bp2008]

For 6 cameras at 2 or 3 MP each, the i5 should be fine, even if you use Blue Iris which is the most power hungry of the bunch. Blue Iris is also the cheapest, and the most popular on this forum, so it is what I recommend. If you go with Blue Iris, you should enable direct to disk recording on all the cams, and hardware accelerated h264 decoding too. There is also a "VideoPostProc" feature in BI under the hardware acceleration dropdown, but I think it maxes out around 4 cameras and actually starts to make performance worse for more than that, so I wouldn't enable it if I were you.

I'm not one of them, but several people are using i5 NUC boxes for Blue Iris to good effect. I have way too many cameras to run them on one of those NUCs, and besides you pay a premium for the smaller size.

 

[nbstl68]

I was previously eye-balling the NUC option too...a few people here have recommended staying away from them if you are eventuallygoing to run many cameras as not all "i5, i7" processors are created equal across all size computers.

I'm really not sure what is "enough" CPU horsepower for a given scenario or number of cameras. It could be more than enough or even overkill if you are just doing a few...
You would have to figure out the math on your particular situation yourself for your needs.
But look on the Intel site at the specs for the CPU's full model name that are supplied say the NUCs vs a Dell Optima or XPs and the Mhz varies substantially.

Example, the "i7" in the NUC5i7RYH NUC you mention is an "i7-5557U": 3.1 Ghz (3.4 Ghz turbo) Dual Core
The "i7" in a Dell Optiplex 7040 MT is more powerful "i7-6700": 3.4 Ghz (4.0 Ghz turbo) Quad Core



Compare any chip here or the intel ARK site:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6700-vs-Intel-Core-i7-5557U

 

[Radioman]

That is an excellent point in regards that all processors are not created equal and I appreciate you pointing that out. The other thing that I noticed after doing some more research is that I can buy a refurbished Dell Optiplex small form factor PC (or HP, etc) with a regular i5 or i7 processor for similar money as compared to the NUC. By the time you add the memory, the hard drive and the OS you are in the same price range.

Granted the NUC is more stealthy and arguably more attractive however it does seem that you do pay a premium for the size and lower power consumption.

 

[bp2008]

If you shop around, you can find ultra small form factor desktops that are not that much larger than a NUC, but twice as fast. The trick is buying them refurbished when they are on sale with a long warranty. That requires checking places like dell business outlet daily or more often, so you can catch them while they are in stock with a good coupon code.

 

[nbstl68]

If you shop around, you can find ultra small form factor desktops that are not that much larger than a NUC, but twice as fast. The trick is buying them refurbished when they are on sale with a long warranty. That requires checking places like dell business outlet daily or more often, so you can catch them while they are in stock with a good coupon code.

Is "Ultra Small" smaller than "SFF"? Can anyone order through Dell "Business Outlet" or do you have to have a special account set up?

 

[bp2008]

Yes, it is smaller than SFF. It is often called USFF. Anyone can order through dell business outlet; you don't need a business license or anything like that.