Surplus eBay Server?

[davej]

So what about these refurbished servers that are available for a few hundred? What would be the critical specifications that would produce a good system? Thanks.

 

[fenderman]

So what about these refurbished servers that are available for a few hundred? What would be the critical specifications that would produce a good system? Thanks.

most of them are powerhogs and dont have quicksync support...not only are they worthless, they have a negative value..see wiki for specs you should be looking for.

 

[davej]

Interesting. Yes, these surplus/refurbished servers generally have E5 family Xeon processors which lack QuickSync. The Xeon E3 family has QuickSync but those servers don't seem as impressive spec-wise (massive number of cores/ GB of RAM). Thanks!

 

[bp2008]

The latest generation of Xeons changed the naming scheme a little. The "E3" series is now just "E" (for "Entry"). But the naming is really all that changed. These entry-level Xeons are still mostly equivalent to i5 or i7 CPUs from 6-12 months earlier, with slightly different pricing and ECC memory support. There's not a lot of reason to buy one over an i5 or i7, especially with the 9th-gen chips coming out very soon and upping the core count again.

 

[davej]

Yes, it does look like the E3-xxxx became the E-xxxx, however the E-xxxx are not to be confused with the older series Exxxx (E with no dash).

So if the ideal Blue Iris setup uses I5/I7 integrated graphics what about using a laptop?

 

[looney2ns]

In the wiki, read choosing hardware for BI.
I'd avoid a laptop.

 

[Mr_D]

Laptop are not designed to run 24/7 and CPU performance is much less than their desktop counterparts.

 

[Tim TAN]

HI all : I am looking into building my own NVR with a Dell Optiplex running Blue Iris; have been reading the forum with interest.

I have a question :

If I were to get a Dell Optiplex in a micro form factor, it will only accommodate 1 HDD or 1 SSD. HDD is usually 500GB and the SSD is 256 GB. The reason I want to go this route is so that the Dell Optiplex casing can fit in a server rack. I have been seeing that Dell PowerEdge servers can be noisy!

If I wanted to store all the footage from 16 cameras on an 8 or 12 TB NAS, will connecting the Optiplex to the NAS via a GB switch be fast enough?
If it is going to be a problem, can blue Iris be configured to do a scheduled transfer of the footage to the NAS, etc?

thanks in advance for your advice.

Tim

 

[Mr_D]

HI all : I am looking into building my own NVR with a Dell Optiplex running Blue Iris; have been reading the forum with interest.

I have a question :

If I were to get a Dell Optiplex in a micro form factor, it will only accommodate 1 HDD or 1 SSD. HDD is usually 500GB and the SSD is 256 GB. The reason I want to go this route is so that the Dell Optiplex casing can fit in a server rack. I have been seeing that Dell PowerEdge servers can be noisy!

If I wanted to store all the footage from 16 cameras on an 8 or 12 TB NAS, will connecting the Optiplex to the NAS via a GB switch be fast enough?
If it is going to be a problem, can blue Iris be configured to do a scheduled transfer of the footage to the NAS, etc?

thanks in advance for your advice.

Tim

Why not get an Optiplex small form factor and stick it on a rack-mounted shelf? They have room for an SSD and a 3.5" hard drive. It is best to record locally over SATA. If you must record to a external storage, I recommend getting a second NIC dedicated to to the NAS and use iSCSI so it appears as a local drive to the BI PC.

 

[davej]

Seems like there is a glut of sub-$250 Optiplex i7-3770 units.

 

[Mr_D]

Seems like there is a glut of sub-$250 Optiplex i7-3770 units.

5 year business PC replacement cycle.

 

[fenderman]

HI all : I am looking into building my own NVR with a Dell Optiplex running Blue Iris; have been reading the forum with interest.

I have a question :

If I were to get a Dell Optiplex in a micro form factor, it will only accommodate 1 HDD or 1 SSD. HDD is usually 500GB and the SSD is 256 GB. The reason I want to go this route is so that the Dell Optiplex casing can fit in a server rack. I have been seeing that Dell PowerEdge servers can be noisy!

If I wanted to store all the footage from 16 cameras on an 8 or 12 TB NAS, will connecting the Optiplex to the NAS via a GB switch be fast enough?
If it is going to be a problem, can blue Iris be configured to do a scheduled transfer of the footage to the NAS, etc?

thanks in advance for your advice.

Tim

note the micro pc, aside from no room for proper local storage uses the low power T processor...