My first dedicated Blue Iris PC was a eBay bought mid-tower Optiplex 9010 i7-4770 for $200. Served it's purpose for my initial 4x2MP Dahua cameras wonderfully. Somewhere along the line, I wanted to downsize the footprint of the PC. I went out and bought a USFF Optiplex for $200. Great for saving up real estate! However, no 3.5" bays for my 8TB Western Digital Purple hard drive. I sought NAS storage and that worked out great, or so I thought. With 15 Dahua IP camera's, the NAS certainly was a valid option but the network congestion (over 700 mp/s) was irritating slow on Blue Iris alert clips (sometimes, up to 30 seconds to populate the left hand listings). And being a i7-4770 4th gen intel cpu, could not do h.265. I should of built a PC from day 1 to save headaches. And, that is what I did on...day 365 
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.6 GHz Turbo unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W
motherboard: ASRock ATX Motherboard (Z390M PRO4) at $126. Had to go miniATX to fit into my rack mounted server case:
iStarUSA Group 2U Compact Rackmount 2 X 5.25 (D-214-MATX) ... bought at local auction for $5 but usually you see these for $100 range:
Thermaltake Smart 430W 80+ White Continuous Power ATX 12V for $38 (low wattage power supply is AOK since no graphics card):
G.Skill RipJaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin SDRAM PC4-28800 DDR4 3600 for dual memory optimization at $85 : (thanks to @bp2008 for this info)
Noctua NH-L9x65, 65mm Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler for $50 (and a couple front case fans):
Silicon Power 1TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD for $129 (not exactly highly rated as a Samsung EVO SSD but comes in $60 cheaper...will try it out):
-----------------------
Of course, my 8TB Western Digital Purple is now local instead of NAS.
All 15 camera's (some 2MP, some 4MP, some 8MP, 1 boobie camera) running continuously direct to disc using H.265. (or maybe I should say 16 camera's since boobie cam is double cam)
i5-9600k CPU sitting under 30%. The older i7-4770 clocked in around 45-50%.
Windows 10 Pro, Blue Iris database and alerts on the Silicon Power 1TB SSD C: (this may wear & tear on the SSD but that's ok for time being)
Stored clips goes to WD Purple.
Still have to mount the boobie camera at front door area. For right now to have a reference, plugged in and sitting in garage.
All fit happily in my server case in a wall mounted server cabinet.
I should of done this on day 1
The last camera I may slap into my setup may be a future project of a LPR & lamp post combo.
All of this will help integrate Blue Iris to Home Assistant and DSC alarm panel Envisalink (that project should be up next).
Look at what this site has created And to think...I was 15 minutes away from going to Costco to buy a Defender NVR last year.....hmph.
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.6 GHz Turbo unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W
motherboard: ASRock ATX Motherboard (Z390M PRO4) at $126. Had to go miniATX to fit into my rack mounted server case:
iStarUSA Group 2U Compact Rackmount 2 X 5.25 (D-214-MATX) ... bought at local auction for $5 but usually you see these for $100 range:
Thermaltake Smart 430W 80+ White Continuous Power ATX 12V for $38 (low wattage power supply is AOK since no graphics card):
G.Skill RipJaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin SDRAM PC4-28800 DDR4 3600 for dual memory optimization at $85 : (thanks to @bp2008 for this info)
Noctua NH-L9x65, 65mm Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler for $50 (and a couple front case fans):
Silicon Power 1TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD for $129 (not exactly highly rated as a Samsung EVO SSD but comes in $60 cheaper...will try it out):
-----------------------
Of course, my 8TB Western Digital Purple is now local instead of NAS.
All 15 camera's (some 2MP, some 4MP, some 8MP, 1 boobie camera) running continuously direct to disc using H.265. (or maybe I should say 16 camera's since boobie cam is double cam)
i5-9600k CPU sitting under 30%. The older i7-4770 clocked in around 45-50%.
Windows 10 Pro, Blue Iris database and alerts on the Silicon Power 1TB SSD C: (this may wear & tear on the SSD but that's ok for time being)
Stored clips goes to WD Purple.
Still have to mount the boobie camera at front door area. For right now to have a reference, plugged in and sitting in garage.
All fit happily in my server case in a wall mounted server cabinet.
I should of done this on day 1
The last camera I may slap into my setup may be a future project of a LPR & lamp post combo.
All of this will help integrate Blue Iris to Home Assistant and DSC alarm panel Envisalink (that project should be up next).
Look at what this site has created
And to think...I was 15 minutes away from going to Costco to buy a Defender NVR last year.....hmph.
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
