new to blue iris

[David Casto]

hi everyone, so glad to have found this forum. amazingly helpful info- this community popped up in my search results every time i have googled a support question. i've been using a 16 camera nvr setup from GW Security, wanting to add more camera to the system/ non GW cameras, and therefore trying to switch to blue iris system. we've been trying to use an old gaming server, installed a 4tb WD purple drive- it it has been a nonstop crashfest.

are the specs of the server we're using solid enough for say, 24 5 mp cameras? currently it is actually only 14 cameras, 7 of the 4mp GW4555IP and another 7 of the GW4571IP. fresh wipe of drive, new windows 10 install on an AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3 GHZ with 8 gig ram.

blue iris seems to run ok but when i connect the cameras seems to crush the system causing a crash. is it not enough PC? or is it settings i made on the cameras? i can see all cameras from my device config download from GW, and they are all working- but i am stumped where the error is to getting this working / what is the best config to maximize the system abilities/ if the server is just the wrong flavor of PC for this application.

TIA for help

 

[Edcfish]

This Wiki entry may help you decide if your hardware is 'beefy' enough.
Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

A few other questions to fill in more details on what you are doing...

Do the problems occur when you have only 1 camera added to BI?

What are the specs of the video? A 1080 (2MP) at 10 frames per second vs a 4K (8MP) at 60 frames per second will result in vastly different resources being needed.

Is the OS and BI app+database on a SSD? (in my experience so far, having a SSD makes a huge difference)

Are the clips on the 4TB WD? And did you leave significant (~10%) space free on the drive?

 

[David Casto]

It is not a solid-state drive for the operating system or Blue Iris from what I understood reading blue Iris, it prefers to be on the same drive that the files are being written to. We just did a clean wipe and installed blue iris on c: with the os, clean wipe of the d: wd 4tb purple drive for files only. These are four megapixel cameras and here is where I’m stumped. do I determine the frames per second and program it in or is it based on the capabilities of the server and cameras ? I thought maybe five frames per second would be more than enough for security purposes. If I’m going to 24 five megapixel cameras what frame for seconds would be good for my server configuration. Is this computer in the right neighborhood i’ve necessary specs for what we’re doing

 

[looney2ns]

It is not a solid-state drive for the operating system or Blue Iris from what I understood reading blue Iris, it prefers to be on the same drive that the files are being written to. We just did a clean wipe and installed blue iris on c: with the os, clean wipe of the d: wd 4tb purple drive for files only. These are four megapixel cameras and here is where I’m stumped. do I determine the frames per second and program it in or is it based on the capabilities of the server and cameras ? I thought maybe five frames per second would be more than enough for security purposes. If I’m going to 24 five megapixel cameras what frame for seconds would be good for my server configuration. Is this computer in the right neighborhood i’ve necessary specs for what we’re doing

Study the link noted above, plus this one. Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage | IP Cam Talk

Also, that processor is 9 years old, so I doubt it can cut it. Even if it could, I imagine it is a space heating power hog. AMD in most instances is not the proper choice.

 

[Edcfish]

Compared to a newer i7 processor the AMD you listed is fairly under powered and i would not expect it to support 20+ cameras unless they were streaming low quality video at a low frame rate.
Comparison of an i7 to that AMD: UserBenchmark: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T vs Intel Core i7-6700K

In my current setup, I have a not so new i5...about $170 used currently.

With 8 cameras ranging from 2MP to 5MP all at 20 frames per second, Intel decoding enabled, BI running as a service, BITools running, and motion detection in BI on for all cameras, I rarely exceed 30% processor used.

 

[David Casto]

WOW. thanks so much those two linked article eluded my searches and is exactly the info i needed. had no idea the intel vs amd advantages, nor the real age of this gaming box. will evaluate cost vs benefit of server upgrade vs dedicated nvr.