Migrate to BI from NVR

[bapesta786]

Just looking for some general advice here guys.

Current Setup:
4 channel NVR with 3 x 4MP Wbox IP PoE Cameras

Im looking to move away from my NVR and move to Blue Iris but one thing I'm not too sure about is the required HW. I assumed I would need a beefy machine with top speed GPU but from what I've read that doesn't seem to be the case.

I work in IT and have equipment lying around for lab use (HP N54L's, HP Gen8 Servers) so I'm wondering what CPU and RAM would be required in order for me to move my current cameras over and possibly in future be able to handle 4K cameras. Ideally something low power would be nice. Motion detection isn't a priority either but again would be nice providing it's accurate as I have it disabled at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bp2008]

Pretty much any Intel CPU newer than Sandy Bridge with Quick Sync would work to give you some experience. 8 GB of RAM is recommended as a minimum because Windows is a pig, though you can get away with 4-6 GB if you make sure it is at least installed in a proper dual channel configuration.

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris

Buy refurbished. Don't build or buy new. The most cost-effective Blue Iris computers are refurbished business-class systems such as "HP EliteDesk" and "Dell OptiPlex". You can usually get a good deal by searching [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']Ebay[/URL] for specific CPU model numbers, and...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[bp2008]

How well a given machine will perform depends a huge amount on the configuration, and in particular the direct to disc feature doesn't work with Blue Iris in demo mode, so keep that in mind.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Have a look in the WiKi, in the blue bar at the top of the page fourth from the left. Lots of configuration information in there for a PC and cameras.

 

[bapesta786]

Thanks for your replies guys - really useful information.

Also another question - is there any way to have it record or upload to another location as well as recording direct to disk?

 

[Mike]

Thanks for your replies guys - really useful information.

Also another question - is there any way to have it record or upload to another location as well as recording direct to disk?

Yes, you can have the videos upload to and FTP server and things like that. I am introducing a cloud service within the next few weeks as well.

 

[concord]

...I work in IT and have equipment lying around for lab use (HP N54L's, HP Gen8 Servers)...

The N54L doesn't have enough horse power, with the AMD and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 chipset. It worked fine for my first headless Plex server, as long as I didn't need to convert the stream on the fly (i.e. MPEG2 to 4, 1080p to 480p). I quickly moved Plex to an i7 and use the N54L to back up the video/music files.

Blue Iris can take advantage of a GPU. However, I would think the Proliant Gen8, with dual XEON CPUs with 6 to 14 cores, could handle 4 cams with out a GPU, but it's going to eat allot of power. Better off with a newer/more efficient processor system with QuickSync.