Smallest tower/form for blue iris pc
- Thread starter jayleoness
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looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Yeah, I'd stay away from those mini pc's for Blue Iris. A dell Optiplex Small Form Factor is pretty small, silent, and very energy effcient.
Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk
out of curiosity, Looney...how would a NUC hold up? I have a dell optiplex medium sized. Also doubles as my current Home Assistant stuff (so far, no issues with CPU usage). Always wondered if I get my hands on a i5 or i7 NUC if Blue Iris would be ok on that.
SouthernYankee
IPCT Contributor
personal opinion, The nuc is too small for the continuous heat load that a BI machine generate running 24/7. It is not very expandable for additional disk drives. Also they are over priced compared to a use business computer.
I would agree on the over price. You would think...smaller foot print = small $$$. But such is not the case.
The NUC and Mini / micro are the same platform design. You ask what the smallest size you could use for BI with 4 cams. I have 8 setup mini’s running 2-4 cams over 2+ years on mini. These systems are in a Kiosk stand and could not fit a small form factor PC. If I could have fit SFF I would have used that. With nuc/mini you would be limited 4TB 2.5” drive size. Cooling fans in a mini are the same as a laptop, would not run 8 cams or high CPU load. SFF would be best for longevity and larger hard drive capacity.
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Not recommended at all.
mat200
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As I have limited space I was also looking for the smallest system possible for Blue Iris during my search for a storage device ( NVR, VMS .. )
This is what I concluded:
Ideally get a system which can hold at least ONE 3.5" SATA HDD and one OS SSD/HDD ( 2.5" SSD or M.2 SSD works well on that )
Also a non-laptop i5/i7 CPU 4th gen+
The smallest systems which appeared at reasonable price points for performance was used Dell and HP business class SFF form factor systems.
If I wanted, I could build a nice custom small box with a i5/i7 that can hold a 3.5" - however that would run significantly more $
This is what I concluded:
Ideally get a system which can hold at least ONE 3.5" SATA HDD and one OS SSD/HDD ( 2.5" SSD or M.2 SSD works well on that )
Also a non-laptop i5/i7 CPU 4th gen+
The smallest systems which appeared at reasonable price points for performance was used Dell and HP business class SFF form factor systems.
If I wanted, I could build a nice custom small box with a i5/i7 that can hold a 3.5" - however that would run significantly more $