Older i7 vs Newer i5

[Kn10]

I am doing a new Blue Iris custom build and trying to decide on a CPU.

In the Blue Iris specs, they recommend an i7. I can easily get a cheap Dell SFF i7 second hand for a great price (and I do understand the business SFF's are the best bang for buck in general).

However, some modern i5's are coming up cheap.

i7-6700 Dell SFF's are fairly common here. They are 4 Core, 8 Thread @ 3.4Ghz, 8MB cache
i5-10400's are cheap and are 6 Core, 12 Thread @ 2.9Ghz, 12MB cache

Obviously, the i5 is five years later so its not apples to apples, but is there any specific about the i7 that Blue Iris makes use of that I am missing?

Does anyone know if it does better with a higher single core base clock vs more cores?

 

[biggen]

How many cameras and can they use sub streams?

With the ability to use sub streams, CPU choice has widen. I have two BI installations now running Ryzen chips.

 

[Kn10]

8 cameras, mostly 4MP, All can use substreams.
Not loyal to Intel, but thought Quicksync was a big benefit with BI.

 

[tigerwillow1]

My conclusion is that an 8th generation or newer i5 is roughly equivalent performance-wise to a 3rd gen to 7th gen i7. Same thing for i3 vs. i5.

 

[biggen]

I prefer lots of cores so I'd go for the i5. With substreams, it won't break a sweat.

 

[looney2ns]

I am doing a new Blue Iris custom build and trying to decide on a CPU.

In the Blue Iris specs, they recommend an i7. I can easily get a cheap Dell SFF i7 second hand for a great price (and I do understand the business SFF's are the best bang for buck in general).

However, some modern i5's are coming up cheap.

i7-6700 Dell SFF's are fairly common here. They are 4 Core, 8 Thread @ 3.4Ghz, 8MB cache
i5-10400's are cheap and are 6 Core, 12 Thread @ 2.9Ghz, 12MB cache

Obviously, the i5 is five years later so its not apples to apples, but is there any specific about the i7 that Blue Iris makes use of that I am missing?

Does anyone know if it does better with a higher single core base clock vs more cores?

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris

Buy refurbished. Don't build or buy new. The most cost-effective Blue Iris computers are refurbished business-class systems such as "HP EliteDesk" and "Dell OptiPlex". You can usually get a good deal by searching [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']Ebay[/URL] for specific CPU model numbers, and...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[bp2008]

Single-threaded performance certainly does matter for certain things (like how well you can remotely view a 4K @ 30 FPS stream), but mostly it is the multi-core performance that matters for Blue Iris, since every camera can be processed on one or more threads of its own.

Since nobody does Blue-Iris-specific benchmarks, I use PassMark's CPU benchmark database to compare CPUs.

i7-6700 scores 8030.
i5-10400 scores 12721.

Beware of the Intel CPU models ending in the letter "F" which don't have integrated graphics and therefore no Quick Sync Video. You might as well buy an AMD system if you don't care about Quick Sync.

 

[OICU2]

Single-threaded performance certainly does matter for certain things (like how well you can remotely view a 4K @ 30 FPS stream), but mostly it is the multi-core performance that matters for Blue Iris, since every camera can be processed on one or more threads of its own.

Since nobody does Blue-Iris-specific benchmarks, I use PassMark's CPU benchmark database to compare CPUs.

i7-6700 scores 8030.
i5-10400 scores 12721.

Beware of the Intel CPU models ending in the letter "F" which don't have integrated graphics and therefore no Quick Sync Video. You might as well buy an AMD system if you don't care about Quick Sync.

I second using Passmark's benchmarks. That cpu benchmark # alone is what I base my purchase off of. Just snagged an HP Slimline 290 i7-8700, 256gb ssd and 32gb of RAM (was supposed to come with 8GB but to my surprise when I opened it up, it had 32GB!) for 300 bucks to replace my aging main desktop. Added a 500gb Samsung Evo 970 NVMe SSD using the Startech M2 PCIe SSD adapter and this thing flies. About 4 seconds for Win10x64 to go from turn-on (after bios) to logged on.

 

[Kn10]

i7-6700 scores 8030.
i5-10400 scores 12721.
Beware of the Intel CPU models ending in the letter "F" which don't have integrated graphics and therefore no Quick Sync Video.

Thank you. WIll check out the passmark scores. Was aware of the F's, which are even cheaper but obviously not good for this scenario.

HP Slimline 290 i7-8700, 256gb ssd and 32gb of RAM (was supposed to come with 8GB but to my surprise when I opened it up, it had 32GB!) for 300 bucks

I'm jealous of American pricing. Hop on eBay.com.au and see how much the usual recommend SFF's go for.

 

[samplenhold]

I can easily get a cheap Dell SFF

Make sure you know what the drive bay status is on that SFF. There have been a few members recently that have been disappointed with their SFF purchase once received. Some of these cases do not have 3.5" drive bays or have no extra drive bays.

 

[vandyman]

Make sure you know what the drive bay status is on that SFF. There have been a few members recently that have been disappointed with their SFF purchase once received. Some of these cases do not have 3.5" drive bays or have no extra drive bays.

I had a similar problem with a HP last year. It came with DVD player and one HD with no expansion.
I removed the DVD and replaced with a SSD. And upgraded the HDD.
DVD and Blu-ray players are not required for a BI setup.