New blue iris build, What processor would be best for my application?

[Flint Bearden]

We have been using blue iris for many years now (latest version) and we run it on one of our servers. Our server has a Xeon E5-2630 processor and 24gb ram. We currently run 37 cameras most of which are Amcrest 1080p, some Foscam 960p, and maybe three Dlink 640x480. We choose to run it on this server because we were not using it at the time. It has been running fine for many years and blue iris is the only thing we used to run on this server, now we are using the server for other things and have been experiencing problems so the decision has been made to take blue iris off the server and build a dedicated machine for it. We have been looking at the latest generation i7 8700k and wondering if this processor would be the best fit for our system. We will be adding more cameras too so keep that in mind. Is this processor a good place to start or should I be looking at another Xeon build? If neither are a good option then what would be your recommendation? Thanks.

 

[_CW]

Hey,

I too am going through the same exact situation. Curious to hear what others suggest. I am just now starting to research a custom build for a server to support (primarily) Blue Iris/Video Monitoring with approx. the same amount of cameras as you and possibly to support some mild use of a Plex sever. I've been leaning towards the i7 myself after doing some very minimal research and hoping that will suffice because the budget for my build is going to be tight.

 

[Flint Bearden]

Hey,

I too am going through the same exact situation. Curious to hear what others suggest. I am just now starting to research a custom build for a server to support (primarily) Blue Iris/Video Monitoring with approx. the same amount of cameras as you and possibly to support some mild use of a Plex sever. I've been leaning towards the i7 myself after doing some very minimal research and hoping that will suffice because the budget for my build is going to be tight.

I don't really have a budget for this build so I guess in a sense I'm lucky? Our problems began when we started letting an outside company handle our "IT" and they keep telling management that the blue iris is causing the problems on this server. I keep telling them that we have been running this exact setup for years without any problems what so ever and its not until they came in that we ever started having problems so my solution is to segregate myself from them and keep them off of my stuff. Anyway, I feel like the software was geared more toward the i7 family of processors with quick sync rather than the xeon processors but not sure what would be best, i7 with 6 cores and quick sync or xeon with 24 cores.

 

[SLC]

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

Check out the wiki page and see if that helps answer your questions.

 

[Flint Bearden]

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

Check out the wiki page and see if that helps answer your questions.

Thanks, I have seen this page and this is where I got the idea of using the i7. But will this i7 6 core processor still give me better performance for this application than a 24 core xeon both running the same number of cameras?

 

[SLC]

Ok, was hoping that might help but I will have to let someone with more knowledge of systems as large as yours give you a definitive answer.

 

[Flint Bearden]

Ok, was hoping that might help but I will have to let someone with more knowledge of systems as large as yours give you a definitive answer.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Flint Bearden]

Just trying to make sure I'm getting the best possible setup for this application before pulling the trigger.

 

[Flint Bearden]

Anybody have any similar experience with a large setup like mine? This is not a residential setup and we are not concerned with power consumption, only performance. Also, would blue iris be the software of choice for a system as large as mine? We also have many supervisors/other personnel who use the web server. I would guess that at any given time I would have as few as 10 and as many as 30 or so users logged in viewing the cameras.

 

[giomania]

Thanks, I have seen this page and this is where I got the idea of using the i7. But will this i7 6 core processor still give me better performance for this application than a 24 core xeon both running the same number of cameras?

Doesn't that link mention the critical factor of a using an Intel processor that has Quick Sync Video? The Xeon's typically don't have this, and it (along with hardware acceleration) greatly reduces the CPU load when using Blue Iris.


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[Flint Bearden]

Doesn't that link mention the critical factor of a using an Intel processor that has Quick Sync Video? The Xeon's typically don't have this, and it (along with hardware acceleration) greatly reduces the CPU load when using Blue Iris.


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Yes, it does. So does this mean that a 6 core processor with quick sync and hardware acceleration will do a better job at supporting 30+ hd cameras or out perform an xeon processor with 24 cores performing the same task? If so then great, I will order the components today....

 

[giomania]

Yes, it does. So does this mean that a 6 core processor with quick sync and hardware acceleration will do a better job at supporting 30+ hd cameras or out perform an xeon processor with 24 cores performing the same task? If so then great, I will order the components today....

That's what @fenderman always says, but please search for "Xeon" and read for yourself before you act.


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[fenderman]

What xeon processor has 24 cores?

 

[Flint Bearden]

What xeon processor has 24 cores?

Good question, I don't know what I was thinking there. Ive been comparing the two processors since my last post and realized my mistake. I'm ordering the i7 8700k and MSI z370 pro mother board with 32 gigs of ram. Already have a case and video card if needed. Following the wiki i'm also getting two 1 tb drives, one a ssd for the os and clips and a wd purple for storage. May get a larger drive for storage. Thanks.

 

[bp2008]

Not many people can afford really high end xeon or Core i9 systems, so there aren't enough data points to say if you can push more video through Blue Iris by throwing a whole lot more cores at it.

There are other VMS products out there besides Blue Iris, which cost a lot more money and have poorer compatibility, but are a great deal more efficient and can run more cameras on less of a server.

 

[giomania]

@fenderman,

I can't find in your recommendations for storage what is the recommended minimum size for an SSD? I am looking for an SSD for the Dell Precision system I purchased. If purchasing new nowadays, I would get a 256GB SSD, but I have an option to re-utilize an Intel 730 series 120GB SSD I have on hand. Thanks for any guidance.

Mark

 

[fenderman]

@fenderman,

I can't find in your recommendations for storage what is the recommended minimum size for an SSD? I am looking for an SSD for the Dell Precision system I purchased. If purchasing new nowadays, I would get a 256GB SSD, but I have an option to re-utilize an Intel 730 series 120GB SSD I have on hand. Thanks for any guidance.

Mark

You'll be ok with the 120..

 

[giomania]

You'll be ok with the 120..

Thanks that gives me options for replacing the 120 gig SSD in the other computer

I will watch for sales on Black Friday


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[Flint Bearden]

Ok, we finally got all the parts in for our new computer build. Everything was chosen per the wiki for the ultimate blue iris pc. We were running everything on a Dell server PER720 with intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630 @ 2.30GHz (2 processors) 24 GB ram running windows server 2008 R2, now we are running on an Intel core i7-8700k @ 3.7 GHz with 16 Gb ram running windows 10 pro. Running on the server we were seeing around 50% cpu usage and would sometimes see this number get to around 60%. On the new build we are around 60%-75% cpu usage. We have a fairly large system with many remote users most of which are local and only a hand full of remote users using their smart phone with the blue iris app. I did experience the memory leak issue and have performed the fix for that yesterday. We have 37 cameras on this system that range from 640x480 on up to 3mp. Cams are a mix of Foscam/Dlink/Amcrest and as the Foscams die they are replaced with amcrest. Most of the cams have their frame rates limited to 15fps but we keep the resolution on each camera as high as they can go. The latest Amcrest cameras I have installed seem to have a setting to where you have a low frame rate and low resolution until it senses motion then it jumps to full res/frame rate, i'm going to look into this feature more. If this is the case then we may start replacing more cameras sooner. Just wanted to let everyone know the results of our build. Also have a new question. Can Blueiris take advantage of a dual processor system? If so then would it be better to have built a system with dual i7-8700k processors or the latest i9 processors?

 

[bp2008]

Unfortunately you can't have dual consumer CPUs in one PC, and i7 and i9 are consumer models. You need to go with server-grade stuff like Intel Xeon or AMD Epyc if you want multiple processors in the machine. I don't know how well Blue Iris runs on dual processor systems, but I would not foresee any difficulties. You yourself were running it on such a system, so you should know more than I do about that.

In January a forum member @Tuckerdude did some comparisons between i9-7980XE and i7-8700K builds and found that the i9 was indeed capable of handling more video despite the lack of Quick Sync hardware acceleration. Whether it is worth the higher price or not, only you can decide. If interested, you can read more about that here and here.