Ok PC for 20 camera setup?

foodtech

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Will be installing a camera system in our food bank with 15-20 cameras. Have read the wiki on PCs for BlueIris and looked at some forum posts, plus have BlueIris running at our thrift shop (4 IPC-HDW5231R-Z cameras, Dell i5-4400). (It's running ~70% so I suspect it may not be configured properly, but that's a separate issue.)

Looked for i7 optiplex or elitedesk PCs on ebay in the $400-$500 stated by the wiki. Found a Dell Optiplex 5040 i7-6700 for $449.99 and an Elitedesk 800 i7-4770 for $459.99. However, also found a Dell XPS i7-7700 for $420.

I would remove the graphics card on the XPS machine. Is there a reason to go for the 8Gb Optiplex with the older processor over the newer 16Gb XPS? The Dells both appear to have capacity to add 2 WD Purple drives, but I can't find expandability info for the HP. Are any a good buy?

Thanks.
 
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SirVenom

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Small form factor office machines like optiplex and elidesk sff are good for BI because they are designed to be quiet, small, run cool and power efficient. They can fit 2 2.5” drives or one 3.5” and one 2.5”. Ideal for 24/7 applications. Xps are gaming machines they come in minitower format. The mb and other components will consume more power For the same performance. If it was me I would look for a sff optiplex 5040 (not the minitower version). There is only a 10% difference in performance between the 7700 and the 6700 anyway and you can upgrade de memory if required.
 

foodtech

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ok, thanks. I'll keep my eyes out. Based on the cliff notes, I had thought I'd need more than one storage HDD for eight days of 24x7 video from 20 2MP cameras.
 

Kahuna.

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I have a HP Prodesk i7-6700. Its a SFF and has 3 internal Sata cables. 1 for SSD, 1 for 10TB Storage, the third is currently hooked to the optical but there is room for another 3.5 in there which could use that 3rd cable if you needed. Cost around $300 on eBay.
 

foodtech

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thanks. I'll keep looking for one to pop up. Haven't really used ebay so hope I can set some kind of alert/notification.
 

M4SK13

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HP ELITEDESK 800 G1 SFF PC - 4TH GEN I5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, WINDOWS 10 PRO | eBay

check out this link; i am stunned at the pricing for these units. 800 series is the bee's knees in reliability 24/7 business spec. 4th Gen Intel performs as well as any 6th and 7th gen (only onboard graphics is improved). SFF as mentioned is quiet and efficient' with that many cameras don't forget the through put of a switch...the higher the better. all the best
 
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foodtech

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Ebay says that listing is no longer available and directed me to an i5-4590 listing. Since our current BI machine is an i5-4400 and at 40-70% with 4 cameras, I'm very hesitant to go with the i5-4590 for 20 cameras. Thanks for the lead. I'm going to have to set up a saved search so I become aware as items get listed.
 

SirVenom

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40-70% for 4 cameras is a bit on the high side. Are you sure your Blueiris is tuned properly? are you streaming to a lot of client devices? lots of overlays? In average Blue iris setup for 4 cameras should be hovering around 10-20%. maybe if you share your camera settings and models we can give you a hand.

Check this out by @bp2008. Great stuff.

Blue Iris Update Helper

Ebay says that listing is no longer available and directed me to an i5-4590 listing. Since our current BI machine is an i5-4400 and at 40-70% with 4 cameras, I'm very hesitant to go with the i5-4590 for 20 cameras. Thanks for the lead. I'm going to have to set up a saved search so I become aware as items get listed.
 
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foodtech

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Appreciate the offer, but the CPU utilization is not my (immediate) concern. The 40-70% is for full CPU utilization for our thrift shop PC. BI optimization is secondary right now as it's on a multi-use PC: user account #1) BI & teamviewer, and user account #2) volunteers doing ebay, music streaming, BI camera viewing. I already know that's not good and am looking to eliminate the multipurpose nature of the PC. However, as long as the PC's CPU utilization doesn't max out, I have bigger fires to put out.

One of those fires is upgrading our food bank's (different location) rebranded Hikvision 10-camera & 16-channel NVR system. The staff had a local electrician install it and I've wanted to replace the NVR with BI for a while. Now's a good time as they want another 5-10 cameras. It's a PC for this upgrade that I'm focusing on now. I'll learn BI configuration for this upgrade and then apply it to the thrift shop after I separate the other users from the BI system.
 

fenderman

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40-70% is for full CPU utilization. While BI at our thrift shop is probably not tuned fully, that's a lesser worry (for now). This 4-camera setup has BI on a multi-use PC: user account #1) BI & teamviewer, and user account #2) volunteers doing ebay, music streaming, BI camera viewing. I already know that's not good and am looking to eliminate the multipurpose nature of the PC. However, as long as the PC's CPU utilization doesn't max out, I have bigger fires to put out.

One of those fires is upgrading our food bank's (different location) rebranded Hikvision 10-camera & 16-channel NVR system. The staff had a local electrician install it and I've wanted to replace the NVR with BI for a while. Now's a good time as they want another 5-10 cameras. It's a PC for this upgrade that I'm focusing on now. I'll learn BI configuration for this upgrade and then apply it to the thrift shop.
the BI pc will be a waste if it crashes and you miss vital recordings because you are using it for other purposes. Cost of a pc for your load is 100 or less.
 

foodtech

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I agree, but unfortunately it wasn't my call as I'm volunteer support. I've got a second PC to put in there once I can get them to free up some space. That will be solved shortly.

My main concern for this thread is a PC for the food bank upgrade.
 

foodtech

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BI on the upgraded food bank system will be running the current 10 rebranded Hikvision domes and bullets plus another 5-10 Dahua cameras (mostly IPC-HDW5231R-ZE's). Up to four staff may have camera streaming running on their desktops at any given time. This site convinced me to try BI and I'd like to do it right.

When checking ebay, I didn't see many elitedesk, prodesk and optiplex computers with the wiki-recommended i7 cpu, particularly SFF, and at prices the wiki described. Being new to this, was 1) interested in the business vs personal PC rationale (answered) and 2) whether the particular business PCs I saw listed were a decent buy (not answered). Not trying to get the deal of the century, but new to ebay & didn't want to get taken. For example, is this Elitedesk SFF with i7-6700 a decent buy even though it has no OS? (I can get OS at discounted non-profit rate.) Appreciate your insight and patience.
 
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pal251

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Can you use an nvr and install vmss on each PC that is streaming?
 

foodtech

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Looking at this HP ProDesk 600 G2. An ok machine for the price? Can get Win10 Pro very affordably as a nonprofit. Would then add WD Purple drive for storage.
 
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Kahuna.

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If you look a little longer you could probably get that machine for $400 or less. Mine is the same with 8 gb and it cost $320 on eBay a month ago but also came with Win10.
 

fenderman

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Thank you Kahuna, I'll keep looking.
there is a high probability that the machine came with w10 or at least a 10 license. 10 should load and activate no problem. That said, dont be afraid to make an offer on the low side. You would be surprised what folks will accept.
also note that if you want to install two 3.5 drives you will want the tower version or as I understand as discussed in another post(but never used myself) the G3 elitedesk case design allows for 2x3.5 even in the sff.
 

foodtech

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Still looking for a computer. Would like two 3.5 drives. Haven't seen towers on ebay particularly with sixth gen i7s or better. So focusing on HP G3 & G4 SFF models presuming they can hold two 3.5s: EliteDesk 800 G3 i7-7700 or EliteDesk 800 G4 i5-8500. Will confirm with HP before buying anything. Price is higher than what's been found by others. One HP Outlet ProDesk similar to the latter Ebay offering is $648. Not surprisingly, a similarnew EliteDesk G4 SFF i5-8500 is several hundred more (towers $1000 more). Not seeing any relevant BF discounts; are they to be expected?
 
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fenderman

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Still looking for a computer. Would like two 3.5 drives. Haven't seen towers on ebay particularly with sixth gen i7s or better. So focusing on HP G3 & G4 SFF models presuming they can hold two 3.5s: EliteDesk 800 G3 i7-7700 or EliteDesk 800 G4 i5-8500. Will confirm with HP before buying anything. Price is higher than what's been found by others. One HP Outlet ProDesk similar to the latter Ebay offering is $648. Not surprisingly, a similarnew EliteDesk G4 SFF i5-8500 is several hundred more (towers $1000 more). Not seeing any relevant BF discounts; are they to be expected?
sff cannot hold 2 3.5
you can buy new i5-8500 machines (not elitedesk) in the 500-600 range..
you missed 15 percent off all ebay the other day. if you are willing to do sff, here is an i7-6700 for 410 HP EliteDesk 800 G2 W5X97UT#ABA i7-6700 3.40GHz 1TB HDD 16GB | eBay
you need to watch ebay daily...I picked up my i7-6700 elitedesk tower two years ago for 400. The good deals go fast.
 
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