Skip the router that supports POE devices. Consumer grade routers, especially cheap ones cannot efficiently pass the bandwidth of 24/7 cameras. Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes (mine goes 45 seconds). I pull the plug on the ethernet from the camera switch and the video is lost instantly.
If you go the PC route, purchase a second NIC and you put all your cameras on that NIC (different IP address range) than your home internet on a different IP address range. Then your cameras are not passing through an inefficient router and bogging down your system. And it prevents your cameras from phoning home or being used for bot attacks.
I'd recommend you consider a
Blue Iris/computer combo as an NVR. Keep in mind an NVR is simply a stripped down computer after all... And this would allow you the flexibility to mix camera brands.
You don't need to buy components and build one, or buy a new computer either.
When I was looking at replacing an existing NVR, once I realized that not all NVRs are created equal, and once I priced out a good one, it was cheaper to buy a refurbished computer than an NVR.
Many of us buy refurbished computers that are business class computers that have come off lease. The one I bought I kid you not I could not tell that it was a refurbished unit - not a speck of dust or dents or scratches on it. It appeared to me like everything was replaced and I would assume just the motherboard with the intel processor is what was from the original unit. I went with the lowest end processor on the
WIKI list as it was the cheapest and it runs my system fine. Could probably get going for $200 or so. A real NVR will cost more than that.
A member here a couple months ago found a refurbished 4th generation for less than $150USD that came with Win10 PRO, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB drive.
Blue Iris has a demo, so try it out on an existing computer and see if you like it.
Blue Iris has a demo, so try it out on an existing computer and see if you like it. You can probably pull the cameras from the NVR right into
Blue Iris by simply adding in the IP address of the NVR in the camera IP address of
Blue Iris and putting in a user and password then down about halfway is a camera # and you just select the camera number to bring in.
There is a big
Blue Iris or NVR debate here LOL. Some people love
Blue Iris and think NVRs are clunky and hard to use and others think Blue Iris is clunky and hard to use. I have done both and prefer Blue Iris. As with everything YMMV...
And you can disable Windows updates and set up the computer to automatically restart in a power failure, and then you have a more powerful NVR with a nice mobile viewing interface.
Blue Iris is great and works with probably more camera brands than most VMS programs, but there are brands that don't work well or not at all - Rings, Arlos, Nest, Some Zmodo cams use proprietary systems and cannot be used with
Blue Iris, and for a lot of people Reolink doesn't work well either. But we would recommend staying away from those brands even if you go the NVR route with one of those brands...
Get a POE NVR for IP cams. Then import the streams into