Should I upgrade my PC?

iSweg

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I have a generic HP Elite tower (the ones used in offices) that has 8GB of RAM, 4TB of Hard Drive Space, and an i5-2400 CPU (no dedicated GPU). This machine is running 24/7 as it serves as my surveillance camera recording/alerting system that is hooked up to 8 different cameras running Blue Iris. It usually idles around at ~40-45%. I also followed the steps to better configure my Blue Iris setup from this link. Lately our home electricity bill has gone up a bit and I think this PC may be one of the culprits as I very recently set this all up, and I know the i5-2400 is a bit on the older side and maybe power-hungry. For reference, I am using generic SV3C 1080P 25FPS 2MP cameras (those generic cheap ones from Amazon).

I came across someone who is selling a generic Dell Inspiron tower with an i5-6400 with 16GB of RAM, 1TB Hard Drive with Windows activated (no dedicated GPU, but not necessary for my use case). This machine is for $130. I was, therefore, wondering, if this kind of upgrade something that makes sense, or is it not much of an upgrade for my kind of use case? Benchmarks wise, both CPUs seem close (a matter of fact, the i5-6400 has a locker clock speed than the i5-2400), but I am also not sure with the i5-6400 being a lot more recent if it is worth it.
Another thing I am considering in all of this is the time to re-set all this up, so I also was wondering if setting up a brand new machine from scratch and setting up all my configurations and scripts I initially set up is worth the price and upgrade. I should note that I am thinking of adding a couple of more cameras, likely WiFi 1080P if that makes a difference in feedback.
 
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fenderman

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I have a generic HP Elite tower (the ones used in offices) that has 8GB of RAM, 4TB of Hard Drive Space, and an i5-2400 CPU (no dedicated GPU). This machine is running 24/7 as it serves as my surveillance camera recording/alerting system that is hooked up to 8 different cameras running Blue Iris. It usually idles around at ~30-35%. I also followed the steps to better configure my Blue Iris setup from this link. Lately our home electricity bill has gone up a bit and I think this PC may be one of the culprits as I very recently set this all up, and I know the i5-2400 is a bit on the older side and maybe power-hungry. For reference, I am using generic SV3C 1080P 25FPS 2MP cameras (those generic cheap ones from Amazon).

I came across someone who is selling a generic Dell Inspiron tower with an i5-6400 with 16GB of RAM, 1TB Hard Drive with Windows activated (no dedicated GPU, but not necessary for my use case). This machine is for $130. I was, therefore, wondering, if this kind of upgrade something that makes sense, or is it not much of an upgrade for my kind of use case? Benchmarks wise, both CPUs seem close (a matter of fact, the i5-6400 has a locker clock speed than the i5-2400), but I am also not sure with the i5-6400 being a lot more recent if it is worth it.
Another thing I am considering in all of this is the time to re-set all this up, so I also was wondering if setting up a brand new machine from scratch and setting up all my configurations and scripts I initially set up is worth the price and upgrade. I should note that I am thinking of adding a couple of more cameras, likely WiFi 1080P if that makes a difference in feedback.
It is not the pc. That pc would likely consume 40-50w at that load. You will not save much with an i5-6400. The big gains in efficiency and added power come with the 8th gen. Get a killawatt meter and see for yourself. First step in saving on your electric bill is making sure all your bulbs are led.
 

iSweg

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Thank you for the quick response! Yes, you may be right about my spike in electricity usage being something else, I figured it may be the PC mainly because of the spike in our bill timing up to the setup of the Blue Iris desktop/server. I also have a typo as the PC actually idles around at 40-45% and not 30-35%.

But on paper, is there anything to gain from the i5-6400 compared to the i5-2400 (comparing it from the perspective of cost, and time to set up a brand new machine)? I don't use this machine for anything else other than having Blue Iris run in the background, and don't really have a desire to add any fancier cameras (such as 4K for example).
 

fenderman

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Thank you for the quick response! Yes, you may be right about my spike in electricity usage being something else, I figured it may be the PC mainly because of the spike in our bill timing up to the setup of the Blue Iris desktop/server. I also have a typo as the PC actually idles around at 40-45% and not 30-35%.

But on paper, is there anything to gain from the i5-6400 compared to the i5-2400 (comparing it from the perspective of cost, and time to set up a brand new machine)? I don't use this machine for anything else other than having Blue Iris run in the background, and don't really have a desire to add any fancier cameras (such as 4K for example).
There is likely to gain in your situation. Put a killawatt meter on it and test.
 

iSweg

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You can find an i7-4790 on eBay for 230.00. I'd go there and do that.
While that idea does seem enticing, I honestly wasn't looking to spend too much on this PC/server as it is only running Blue Iris and nothing else.

There is likely to gain in your situation. Put a killawatt meter on it and test.
Forgive my ignorance, but is the leap in generations something that can provide improvements (in performance, ignoring energy costs)? I ask because there is a lower clock speed in the i5-6400 compared to the i5-2400. I am only asking because I am newer to the Intel side of the world as from the basic research online it seems to show both support h.264 and h.265, hardware acceleration and so forth (I am basically trying to identify aside from potential energy savings, is the upgrade worth it as this essentially require me to put in time to re-set everything up again).
 

area651

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I'd stick w/ what you got. I think you can tweak your config to lower your cpu usage but really you've got room to spare even if you don't touch it. I think if you were constantly pegging 100% then yes, time to upgrade. Just seems like you can lower where you are now some by just proper tweaking. That's just my opinion though.
 

IP_man

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Hi,

As others have mentioned, you should be able to easily figure out what is consuming the most energy in your home. But, it does sound like you're itching for a reason to upgrade ... ;) ... see below.

TL;DR
I'd gather CPU data at the processor level before deciding whether to upgrade the CPU.

Details
With any resource, it can be in any three states:
  1. Under utilized - less than 100% in-use.
  2. Fully utilized - 100% in-use, additional requests are not waiting to be queued.
  3. Over utilized - 100% in-use and additional requests waiting in a queue.
On Windows, when measuring performance, I use perfmon.exe I sample at three second intervals while the machine is in steady-state. For processors, I gather data for each.

You stated that your machine has 40-45% idle cycles. The problem with this aggregate metric is it does not state the busyness per processor. Given your chip has four processors, if two of the four our maxed out, you'll see 50% busy. If your application(s) is/are not multi-threaded, you'll have a CPU bottleneck even while your monitor is reporting 50% busy (or 50% idle).
 
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Attached is some info from cpu benchmark comparing the two cpus. Also realize that the i5-6400 that you are considering has twice the RAM.i5-6400 vs 2400 -1.JPGi5-6400 vs 2400 -2.JPGi5-6400 vs 2400 -3.JPG

The i5-6400 is probably much newer and probably has faster memory as well as better/faster motherboard components.
 

Sybertiger

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I have a generic HP Elite tower (the ones used in offices) that has 8GB of RAM, 4TB of Hard Drive Space, and an i5-2400 CPU (no dedicated GPU). This machine is running 24/7 as it serves as my surveillance camera recording/alerting system that is hooked up to 8 different cameras running Blue Iris. It usually idles around at ~40-45%. I also followed the steps to better configure my Blue Iris setup from this link. Lately our home electricity bill has gone up a bit and I think this PC may be one of the culprits as I very recently set this all up, and I know the i5-2400 is a bit on the older side and maybe power-hungry. For reference, I am using generic SV3C 1080P 25FPS 2MP cameras (those generic cheap ones from Amazon).
My i7 6th gen plus my POE switch with 7 cams, IR turned all the way up at night is right at 100W and with my power rate it translates into $10/month added to the electric bill. I think some people over think the power aspect of it to convince themselves they can't afford an IP cam system.
 

area651

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My i7 6th gen plus my POE switch with 7 cams, IR turned all the way up at night is right at 100W and with my power rate it translates into $10/month added to the electric bill. I think some people over think the power aspect of it to convince themselves they can't afford an IP cam system.
you guys that watch your power spend amaze me. Not in a bad way. I'd just hate to face what my systems cost me. I'd rather not know!

In my home office alone, I've got an i7 workstation that I never turn off. Its attached to 2, 32" monitors that shut off only after 4hrs of non use.
The BI system is also i7 and its on its own 27" monitor that shuts off after 6hrs of no being touched.
9 cameras with one in the garage that runs IR all the time b/c I have the garage doors shut. The other 5 only have IR on at night after bed. (There's 3 w/ no IR needed.)
One, gigabit switch. Its just a simple switch that's about a year old. It has "green setting" capability but there's constant traffic across it b/c of the cams.
One Asus, wireless router
There's the media server that's an i7 that's always on and serving to my family and family in college.
Then there's a 4drive Synology NAS that's holding and feeding all storage for everything. Those drives never stop spinning.
There's also a laser printer in here but it does go to sleep after an hour I guess.

hmmmm.....and I've wondered why its always warmer in this room.
 

tigerwillow1

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Forgive my ignorance, but is the leap in generations something that can provide improvements (in performance, ignoring energy costs)?
From what I've gathered, the performance gains from 3rd to 7th generation were incremental, i.e. somewhat small steps, and the power consumption improved with every generation. At generation 8, there was a nice performance jump. No expert status, just summarizing what I've read.
 
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