Hi all,
Well just got my BI rig up and running and thought i would post a few photos and costs. All amounts are Australian dollars.
This is my first venture into cams and have never done anything like this before.
After reading around the internet i came across ipcamtalk and decided that BI was for me.
I already have two servers going, a 2RU Dell PowerEdge 2950 with dual Xeon Harpertown processors and a 1RU HP DL360 with dual Xenon in an 42RU rack but after reading decided these would not be the best way to go even though having a pc in my rack goes against my beliefs.
So i looked around on ex-Govt auction websites, Dell refurbished site and eBay and settled on a Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF, i7 4790 QUADCORE 3.6GHZ 8GB RAM 500GB HD WIN10 PRO from a private seller on eBay for $381 which included postage.
The first thing i did was a clean install of Win10 and removed any Dell bloatware, which all went well.
I then removed the AMD HD 8570 1GB GRAPHICS CARD that came with it primarily because i am going to run the unit headless from within my rack and my rack mounted KVM wouldn't display anything with it in.
The rig has 4 RAM slots and Slots 1 and 2 were filled with 4GB sticks each leaving two spare slots. Now i read that 8GB of RAM would probably be enough for BI but i thought i would like to increase it and after research and a phone call to RAMCITY i was told it this system doesn't need to have matching sticks in each slot so i went ahead and bought a single 8GB stick of Crucial 8GB PC3L-12800 Unbuffered 240-pin DIMM from RAMCITY for $88.25 which included postage bringing it up to 16GB.
So the DELL 9020 SFF has an Optical drive on top as soon as you open the case and then space for a single 3.5" inch drive underneath or 2 x 2.5" drives if you place a caddy inside the drive holder.
Here is the optical drive on top on when you open the case
and then under the Optical drive
Now my unit came with a 500GB 2.5" drive which was in a DELL OEM drive caddy adapter. This allows you to place 2 x 2.5" drives in one 3.5" slot
Now this is where it got interesting. My plan was to have a SSD for WIN10 and BI and WD Purple for storage.
The WD Purple only comes in 3.5" and the SSD is 2.5"
I purchased a Crucial MX300 Series 525GB 500GB 2.5" SATA3 7mm SSD from eBay for $209 which included postage. I was only looking at getting a 256GB but the 525GB was only another $30 so hell why not.
I purchased a 4TB WD Purple 3.5" from MSY Technology which came with 4 Pin Power to 2 x SATA Power Splitter Cable and a 50cm SATA2 Data Cable for $230.32 which included postage. I didn't need the power cable but it came included so no big issue.
I soon found out with the space inside the Dell SFF i couldn't add another drive caddy and so i couldn't fit a 2.5" drive and 3.5" drive.
It was either a single 3.5" or 2 x 2.5".
After some looking around in the case i thought i could place the WD Purple 3.5" in the drive caddy and the 2.5" SDD underneath it floating free just on top of the motherboard.
When i tried this though the SSD got squashed pretty hard between the motherboard and the WD Purple and was pushing on some resistors and also made me nervous about airflow for the board so i cancelled that idea.
Here the space under the drive caddy i tried to have the SSD resting on.
I then though about removing the Optical drive and using the Optical drive space for the SSD. Now that would have meant i would have to get a new power cable as the Dell Optical drive has a smaller two wire only power cable which splits off the main power cable. The SSD needs a standard power cable.
Here is the Optical drive power cable
After a bit of thinking i cancelled the idea of removing he Optical drive because i didnt want to get another power cable or to make the case look complete i would have to buy a caddy to replace the missing drive like this one. Plus i paid for that Optical drive, not that i think i will ever use it but its the principal of it.
So where to place the SSD?
After some soul searching i settled on the outside of the fan enclosure here
So how to affix? I settled on a single dot of velcro and stuck it on like this
and stuck i to the side of the enclosure like this
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
this fitted really well and was not touching the board below at all.
So with that done i removed the Dell OEM 2/5" drive caddy adapter and placed the WD Purple in the drive caddy
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
The DELL SFF has 3 SATA slots, Slot O, Slot 1 and Slot 2
Some forums suggest that your primary drive should be in Slot 0 so i put the SSD in Slot 0, the WD Purple in Slot 1 and the Optical in Slot 2
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Last step was to hook up the power, close the case and install BI. One small problem there. The Dell SFF only has one power cable possible coming off the board so i only had power for one drive.
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Some more research found i could get a power splitter like this. SATA 15pin Hard Disk Power Male to 2 Female Splitter Y 1 to 2 Extension Cable
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
So off to Jaycar i went to purchase one only to be met with blank faces. They had never seen anything like it before which for one of Australias largest electronics stores worried me. So back to eBay and i purchased one for $2.95 which included postage.
After installation of the power cable
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
i then went about putting all the pieces back together with the WD Purple first
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Then the optical drive on top
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
with the SSD down the side of the fan enclosure
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
and all complete!
I then put the pc on a shelf in the back of the rack and hooked it up to the KVM and installed BI.
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
All working!
Cost break down
PC $381
8GB RAM $88.25
525GB SSD $209
4TB WD Purple $230.92
Power Splitter $2.95
Total $912.12
During this time my Dahua mini-wedge had arrived from Andy at EMPIRETECANDY so i had a cam to plug in to my POE switch
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Now its time to delve into setting up BI correctly and getting my 2MP Starlights from Andy
I hope this BI setup helps any newbies out there and people find its useful.
Thanks, motef
Well just got my BI rig up and running and thought i would post a few photos and costs. All amounts are Australian dollars.
This is my first venture into cams and have never done anything like this before.
After reading around the internet i came across ipcamtalk and decided that BI was for me.
I already have two servers going, a 2RU Dell PowerEdge 2950 with dual Xeon Harpertown processors and a 1RU HP DL360 with dual Xenon in an 42RU rack but after reading decided these would not be the best way to go even though having a pc in my rack goes against my beliefs.
So i looked around on ex-Govt auction websites, Dell refurbished site and eBay and settled on a Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF, i7 4790 QUADCORE 3.6GHZ 8GB RAM 500GB HD WIN10 PRO from a private seller on eBay for $381 which included postage.
The first thing i did was a clean install of Win10 and removed any Dell bloatware, which all went well.
I then removed the AMD HD 8570 1GB GRAPHICS CARD that came with it primarily because i am going to run the unit headless from within my rack and my rack mounted KVM wouldn't display anything with it in.
The rig has 4 RAM slots and Slots 1 and 2 were filled with 4GB sticks each leaving two spare slots. Now i read that 8GB of RAM would probably be enough for BI but i thought i would like to increase it and after research and a phone call to RAMCITY i was told it this system doesn't need to have matching sticks in each slot so i went ahead and bought a single 8GB stick of Crucial 8GB PC3L-12800 Unbuffered 240-pin DIMM from RAMCITY for $88.25 which included postage bringing it up to 16GB.
So the DELL 9020 SFF has an Optical drive on top as soon as you open the case and then space for a single 3.5" inch drive underneath or 2 x 2.5" drives if you place a caddy inside the drive holder.
Here is the optical drive on top on when you open the case
and then under the Optical drive
Now my unit came with a 500GB 2.5" drive which was in a DELL OEM drive caddy adapter. This allows you to place 2 x 2.5" drives in one 3.5" slot
Now this is where it got interesting. My plan was to have a SSD for WIN10 and BI and WD Purple for storage.
The WD Purple only comes in 3.5" and the SSD is 2.5"
I purchased a Crucial MX300 Series 525GB 500GB 2.5" SATA3 7mm SSD from eBay for $209 which included postage. I was only looking at getting a 256GB but the 525GB was only another $30 so hell why not.
I purchased a 4TB WD Purple 3.5" from MSY Technology which came with 4 Pin Power to 2 x SATA Power Splitter Cable and a 50cm SATA2 Data Cable for $230.32 which included postage. I didn't need the power cable but it came included so no big issue.
I soon found out with the space inside the Dell SFF i couldn't add another drive caddy and so i couldn't fit a 2.5" drive and 3.5" drive.
It was either a single 3.5" or 2 x 2.5".
After some looking around in the case i thought i could place the WD Purple 3.5" in the drive caddy and the 2.5" SDD underneath it floating free just on top of the motherboard.
When i tried this though the SSD got squashed pretty hard between the motherboard and the WD Purple and was pushing on some resistors and also made me nervous about airflow for the board so i cancelled that idea.
Here the space under the drive caddy i tried to have the SSD resting on.
I then though about removing the Optical drive and using the Optical drive space for the SSD. Now that would have meant i would have to get a new power cable as the Dell Optical drive has a smaller two wire only power cable which splits off the main power cable. The SSD needs a standard power cable.
Here is the Optical drive power cable
After a bit of thinking i cancelled the idea of removing he Optical drive because i didnt want to get another power cable or to make the case look complete i would have to buy a caddy to replace the missing drive like this one. Plus i paid for that Optical drive, not that i think i will ever use it but its the principal of it.
So where to place the SSD?
After some soul searching i settled on the outside of the fan enclosure here
So how to affix? I settled on a single dot of velcro and stuck it on like this
and stuck i to the side of the enclosure like this
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
this fitted really well and was not touching the board below at all.
So with that done i removed the Dell OEM 2/5" drive caddy adapter and placed the WD Purple in the drive caddy
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
The DELL SFF has 3 SATA slots, Slot O, Slot 1 and Slot 2
Some forums suggest that your primary drive should be in Slot 0 so i put the SSD in Slot 0, the WD Purple in Slot 1 and the Optical in Slot 2
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Last step was to hook up the power, close the case and install BI. One small problem there. The Dell SFF only has one power cable possible coming off the board so i only had power for one drive.
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Some more research found i could get a power splitter like this. SATA 15pin Hard Disk Power Male to 2 Female Splitter Y 1 to 2 Extension Cable
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
So off to Jaycar i went to purchase one only to be met with blank faces. They had never seen anything like it before which for one of Australias largest electronics stores worried me. So back to eBay and i purchased one for $2.95 which included postage.
After installation of the power cable
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
i then went about putting all the pieces back together with the WD Purple first
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Then the optical drive on top
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
with the SSD down the side of the fan enclosure
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
and all complete!
I then put the pc on a shelf in the back of the rack and hooked it up to the KVM and installed BI.
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
All working!
Cost break down
PC $381
8GB RAM $88.25
525GB SSD $209
4TB WD Purple $230.92
Power Splitter $2.95
Total $912.12
During this time my Dahua mini-wedge had arrived from Andy at EMPIRETECANDY so i had a cam to plug in to my POE switch
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Now its time to delve into setting up BI correctly and getting my 2MP Starlights from Andy
I hope this BI setup helps any newbies out there and people find its useful.
Thanks, motef
Last edited:
