Ultimate Blue Iris PC <$2500

[ret60sp]

Matthew,

I want to thank you for this system build! It is the modern version SR-71 of computers.

Previously, I was running a single Intel Xeon E3-1225 V3 (1150 series) four core system and the CPU load stayed pegged at 97% with 11 HD cameras feeding to it. If more than 2 cameras needed to record, the CPU would hit 100% and I’d get all sorts of malfunctions (video clipping, simply no video recorded, a frozen framed recording, or a black screen recording).

This new system is the quintessential hot-rod:

ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS Motherboard
Dual - Intel Xeon (2011 -3) E5-2678 V3 CPU’s (12 Cores each – 24 Threads each = 24 Cores @2.5GHz nominal, 3.1 Ghz Turbo, with 48 threads total)
32 GB Samsung 2133 ECC DDR4 Ram
Samsung 256 GB M.2 SSD for the OS and Blue Iris Software
LSI 9211 8i Sas/Raid Controller – Controlling 4x2TB WD Black Drives in RAID-10 (for video storage)
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 w/4GB DDR5
Windows 10 Pro – 64 bit.
Blue Iris 4.

The system and OS (with Blue Iris software) was transferred intact on the M.2 drive, having retained the same RAID array, video card and case from the previous version.

The New system handles all 11 HD cameras without breaking a sweat. The max CPU load in the daytime, full color with 7 cameras monitoring and 4 cameras recording at the same time is 13% (previously unable to record 4). The typical idle with nothing being recorded is 7-9% CPU load. I’m going to test to see what happens with all 11 recording at the same time – something I normally see start happening when a nasty storm comes through, and an event that would bring the entire system to a crash and reboot.

This new system was built with a $2500 budget. The CPU’s were new old stock, Intel Xeons made specifically for IBM and Dell servers. Research and a lengthy discussion with ASUS Tech Support revealed that the Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard does indeed support these system specific CPU’s. Similar CPU’s cost $2400 each, however these CPU’s are being sold at a significantly discounted price because most motherboard manufacturers do not have BIOS revisions that support these CPU’s. In fact, the ASUS QVL for this motherboard does not list this specific CPU. So it’s a trade secret. One that I’m sharing with you both – Ken at Blue Iris, and Matthew at Bradley Electronics. Please share this discovery with anyone looking to build an affordable super workstation.

Thanking you again for the system build,

Don Francis

PS – I’m now looking for a local expert on Blue Iris software that I can hire to come over here and tweak this software to take advantage of this system’s potential. Please give me names and or phone numbers if either of you know of someone local to North East Georgia with this skillset.

 

[fenderman]

Matthew,

I want to thank you for this system build! It is the modern version SR-71 of computers.

Previously, I was running a single Intel Xeon E3-1225 V3 (1150 series) four core system and the CPU load stayed pegged at 97% with 11 HD cameras feeding to it. If more than 2 cameras needed to record, the CPU would hit 100% and I’d get all sorts of malfunctions (video clipping, simply no video recorded, a frozen framed recording, or a black screen recording).

This new system is the quintessential hot-rod:

ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS Motherboard
Dual - Intel Xeon (2011 -3) E5-2678 V3 CPU’s (12 Cores each – 24 Threads each = 24 Cores @2.5GHz nominal, 3.1 Ghz Turbo, with 48 threads total)
32 GB Samsung 2133 ECC DDR4 Ram
Samsung 256 GB M.2 SSD for the OS and Blue Iris Software
LSI 9211 8i Sas/Raid Controller – Controlling 4x2TB WD Black Drives in RAID-10 (for video storage)
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 w/4GB DDR5
Windows 10 Pro – 64 bit.
Blue Iris 4.

The system and OS (with Blue Iris software) was transferred intact on the M.2 drive, having retained the same RAID array, video card and case from the previous version.

The New system handles all 11 HD cameras without breaking a sweat. The max CPU load in the daytime, full color with 7 cameras monitoring and 4 cameras recording at the same time is 13% (previously unable to record 4). The typical idle with nothing being recorded is 7-9% CPU load. I’m going to test to see what happens with all 11 recording at the same time – something I normally see start happening when a nasty storm comes through, and an event that would bring the entire system to a crash and reboot.

This new system was built with a $2500 budget. The CPU’s were new old stock, Intel Xeons made specifically for IBM and Dell servers. Research and a lengthy discussion with ASUS Tech Support revealed that the Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard does indeed support these system specific CPU’s. Similar CPU’s cost $2400 each, however these CPU’s are being sold at a significantly discounted price because most motherboard manufacturers do not have BIOS revisions that support these CPU’s. In fact, the ASUS QVL for this motherboard does not list this specific CPU. So it’s a trade secret. One that I’m sharing with you both – Ken at Blue Iris, and Matthew at Bradley Electronics. Please share this discovery with anyone looking to build an affordable super workstation.

Thanking you again for the system build,

Don Francis

PS – I’m now looking for a local expert on Blue Iris software that I can hire to come over here and tweak this software to take advantage of this system’s potential. Please give me names and or phone numbers if either of you know of someone local to North East Georgia with this skillset.

sorry but his is inefficient and complete overkill...you dont state what resolution the cameras are recording, but still its silly...
You would be much better suited with an i7-7700 using intel hd for hardware acceleration...ask Mathew for a refund...you were ripped off big time...

 

[ret60sp]

sorry but his is inefficient and complete overkill...you dont state what resolution the cameras are recording, but still its silly...
You would be much better suited with an i7-7700 using intel hd for hardware acceleration...

I like to build a PC that is designed to last 10+ years and not need much hardware changed in the lifespan. It might be silly to build this system under these circumstances if it weren't for the fact that I don't want to find myself needing to rebuild a system every three years because I've added HD 4+MP cameras that cause the CPU load to hit its limit three years down the road. Your recommendation for the i7-7700 is really not that much better than the Intel Xeon E3-1225v3 that I previously had. Your recommendation might have 25-30% more single core processing power, but adding two more 4K cameras to my old system with a i7-7700 would have presented the same CPU load limit as the previous E3-1225 system experience.

I've experimented with Blue Iris on various machines and the software responds better to more cores and more threads than it does to single core performance. The i7-7700 has 4 cores and 8 threads, as compared to the E3-1225V3 with it's 4 cores and 4 threads. So yes, your i7-7700 recommendation would maybe see a 50% improvement, reducing my CPU load by +/- 25% on the previous build.

BTW - the purpose for using Xeon's over the i7 is simply because the i7 is not designed to be used at or near 100% CPU load for prolonged periods, whereas the Xeon CPU's are. Proof in this is simply found in the fact that servers have Xeon's installed and not i7's. Systems operating 24/7 that do not have ECC Ram installed are susceptible to data corruption by multiple sources. i7's don't support ECC Ram. So that's two more reasons to use Xeon CPU's in a security system build.

The places that previously were uncovered by a camera can now be added without concern of overloading the CPU. As I replace low resolution cameras with something north of a 4MP camera I don't have to be too concerned with overloading the PC. I grew tired of finding the recordings missing critical blocks of capture, like showing the UPS truck showing up and leaving, but missing the entire sequence of the guy getting out of the truck and leaving the package. A car shows up, clips and I see it leaving, but I missed the whole process of what they were here doing because too many cameras were grouped together trying to capture the entire sequence of events. This used to be a problem because one or more cameras were set to trigger as a group and if I had more than 3 cameras trying to record at the same time I would lose one or more of the recording feeds as the other two cameras were (hopefully) being captured.

Since I cannot seem to find anyone or any sort of a guide that explains all of the various ways to tweak the BI program to my specific system, I opted for a massive overkill on the PC end. Now I can leave all of the settings to the default and highest resolution state and I don't miss camera sequences as groups light up to capture entire sequences from arrival through departure.

The cams are an assortment of 720p to UHD 4K. As I replace cameras I want to continue to move to higher and higher resolution. Having a PC like the one above gives me that flexibility, and as I grow this network (its a gigabit Ethernet and Fiber Optic Gigabit LAN) with higher resolution cameras, I can use the idle CPU processing availability for other purposes, like cryptocurrency mining or whatnot.

So what might seem like overkill today will undoubtedly seem like a Casio watch in 10 years.

VR-

Don

 

[fenderman]

I like to build a PC that is designed to last 10+ years and not need much hardware changed in the lifespan. It might be silly to build this system under these circumstances if it weren't for the fact that I don't want to find myself needing to rebuild a system every three years because I've added HD 4+MP cameras that cause the CPU load to hit its limit three years down the road. Your recommendation for the i7-7700 is really not that much better than the Intel Xeon E3-1225v3 that I previously had. Your recommendation might have 25-30% more single core processing power, but adding two more 4K cameras to my old system with a i7-7700 would have presented the same CPU load limit as the previous E3-1225 system experience.

I've experimented with Blue Iris on various machines and the software responds better to more cores and more threads than it does to single core performance. The i7-7700 has 4 cores and 8 threads, as compared to the E3-1225V3 with it's 4 cores and 4 threads. So yes, your i7-7700 recommendation would maybe see a 50% improvement, reducing my CPU load by +/- 25% on the previous build.

BTW - the purpose for using Xeon's over the i7 is simply because the i7 is not designed to be used at or near 100% CPU load for prolonged periods, whereas the Xeon CPU's are. Proof in this is simply found in the fact that servers have Xeon's installed and not i7's. Systems operating 24/7 that do not have ECC Ram installed are susceptible to data corruption by multiple sources. i7's don't support ECC Ram. So that's two more reasons to use Xeon CPU's in a security system build.

The places that previously were uncovered by a camera can now be added without concern of overloading the CPU. As I replace low resolution cameras with something north of a 4MP camera I don't have to be too concerned with overloading the PC. I grew tired of finding the recordings missing critical blocks of capture, like showing the UPS truck showing up and leaving, but missing the entire sequence of the guy getting out of the truck and leaving the package. A car shows up, clips and I see it leaving, but I missed the whole process of what they were here doing because too many cameras were grouped together trying to capture the entire sequence of events. This used to be a problem because one or more cameras were set to trigger as a group and if I had more than 3 cameras trying to record at the same time I would lose one or more of the recording feeds as the other two cameras were (hopefully) being captured.

Since I cannot seem to find anyone or any sort of a guide that explains all of the various ways to tweak the BI program to my specific system, I opted for a massive overkill on the PC end. Now I can leave all of the settings to the default and highest resolution state and I don't miss camera sequences as groups light up to capture entire sequences from arrival through departure.

The cams are an assortment of 720p to UHD 4K. As I replace cameras I want to continue to move to higher and higher resolution. Having a PC like the one above gives me that flexibility, and as I grow this network (its a gigabit Ethernet and Fiber Optic Gigabit LAN) with higher resolution cameras, I can use the idle CPU processing availability for other purposes, like cryptocurrency mining or whatnot.

So what might seem like overkill today will undoubtedly seem like a Casio watch in 10 years.

VR-

Don

There is a guide on this website.
again completely ridiculous...makes zero sense, but since its clear that I wont convince you, my comments are reserved for others reading...
you are absolutely incorrect about xeon being any better at 100 percent cpu loads and blue iris should never be run near 100 percent loads...your high cpu loads are likely the result of improper setup. For example, I have a system running about 12 cams or so at 30 megapixel total at 15-20 fps using an i7-4770 at 22% load.
Your power usage alone will pay for new hardware every 3-4 years...put a killawatt meter on that space heater you built and see for yourself.
Finally, you could have spent your money on high end VMS software like Avigilon that does not require nearly as much horsepower and still come out way ahead...
Side note, 4k cameras are generally worthless in low light...you are much better off with 2mp starlights ...You could have literally purchased 10 more starlights and a new pc and still be ahead.

 

[ret60sp]

Oh and before I forget - it makes no sense to purchase a 4-8MP camera capable of recording in 4K+ with H265 and then have your BI software capture or record the 1080p (or less) stream. What good is that when you need to show the local district attorney the face or the license plate of the criminals involved, but you couldn't record the best stream because to do so would cause a system crash or clipping, black screen recording, frozen screen, no audio, or any combination of the above. If I'm spending the money to be able to tell the Deputy Sheriff what color the guy's eyes are, I would also like to be able to read what brand cigarette the a$$h0l3 was smoking when he broke into my car. Dumbing down the recording feed and capture to something that is CPU friendly is counter productive. I would much rather have the entire sequence filmed in UHD, or to a level at the cameras maximum than the alternative.

 

[fenderman]

Oh and before I forget - it makes no sense to purchase a 4-8MP camera capable of recording in 4K+ with H265 and then have your BI software capture or record the 1080p (or less) stream. What good is that when you need to show the local district attorney the face or the license plate of the criminals involved, but you couldn't record the best stream because to do so would cause a system crash or clipping, black screen recording, frozen screen, no audio, or any combination of the above. If I'm spending the money to be able to tell the Deputy Sheriff what color the guy's eyes are, I would also like to be able to read what brand cigarette the a$$h0l3 was smoking when he broke into my car. Dumbing down the recording feed and capture to something that is CPU friendly is counter productive. I would much rather have the entire sequence filmed in UHD, or to a level at the cameras maximum than the alternative.

You obviously have no experience with surveillance cameras..I did not say that you should record 8mp cams at 2mp..I stated that you should purchase 2mp cameras that have superior low light and night vision capabilities. 4mp cams have little pixel density gains over 2mp cameras...Stop chasing MP and learn how to properly setup cameras for identification and license plate capture.

 

[ret60sp]

There is a guide on this website.
again completely ridiculous...makes zero sense, but since its clear that I wont convince you, my comments are reserved for others reading...
you are absolutely incorrect about xeon being any better at 100 percent cpu loads and blue iris should never be run near 100 percent loads...your high cpu loads are likely the result of improper setup. For example, I have a system running about 12 cams or so at 30 megapixel total at 15-20 fps using an i7-4770 at 22% load.
Your power usage alone will pay for new hardware every 3-4 years...put a killawatt meter on that space heater you built and see for yourself.
Finally, you could have spent your money on high end VMS software like Avigilon that does not require nearly as much horsepower and still come out way ahead...
Side note, 4k cameras are generally worthless in low light...you are much better off with 2mp starlights ...You could have literally purchased 10 more starlights and a new pc and still be ahead.

And that's the thing. There is a guide you say.... I haven't found that guide. I've found a lot of opinions that I've tried, some with success and others that required that I remove the camera(s) and start all over. I'm actually more interested in hiring someone that knows your guide or that knows BI software like the back of their hand, but here in NE Georgia that seems to be the unicorn. There are security system specialists, and a myriad of home security installers, but no BI experts in my area. At least none that I can find. If you know of anyone in the Athens/Gainesville Georgia area that knows how to tweak BI software, I'm willing to pay them!

Like I said earlier, and in reference to your "space heater" build, the excess CPU capacity can be used to have the system pay for itself (the entire system build AND the 9 amps it draws at 95% CPU load) by performing other tasks in addition to managing Blue Iris. So this system is NOT JUST a BI system. It prioritizes BI ahead of everything else, but the idle capacity is being used to pay for itself.

On your note regarding i7's vs Xeon's - see Xeon vs i7 – What’s the difference? | Velocity Micro Blog

There are many reasons for using a Xeon CPU. I won't argue with someone who doesn't understand the core difference, or who just wants to ridicule my choices when I've been building computers for almost 40 years. I'm an engineer, and my father is now a retired IBM engineer, and there is simply no disputing the fact that a Xeon CPU is FAR superior to long term operations and heavy CPU loads than the i3/i5/i7 platform. I've taken the liberty of Uploading a White Paper from Intel to bolster my point.

 

[fenderman]

And that's the thing. There is a guide you say.... I haven't found that guide. I've found a lot of opinions that I've tried, some with success and others that required that I remove the camera(s) and start all over. I'm actually more interested in hiring someone that knows your guide or that knows BI software like the back of their hand, but here in NE Georgia that seems to be the unicorn. There are security system specialists, and a myriad of home security installers, but no BI experts in my area. At least none that I can find. If you know of anyone in the Athens/Gainesville Georgia area that knows how to tweak BI software, I'm willing to pay them!

Like I said earlier, and in reference to your "space heater" build, the excess CPU capacity can be used to have the system pay for itself (the entire system build AND the 9 amps it draws at 95% CPU load) by performing other tasks in addition to managing Blue Iris. So this system is NOT JUST a BI system. It prioritizes BI ahead of everything else, but the idle capacity is being used to pay for itself.

On your note regarding i7's vs Xeon's - see Xeon vs i7 – What’s the difference? | Velocity Micro Blog

There are many reasons for using a Xeon CPU. I won't argue with someone who doesn't understand the core difference, or who just wants to ridicule my choices when I've been building computers for almost 40 years. I'm an engineer, and my father is now a retired IBM engineer, and there is simply no disputing the fact that a Xeon CPU is FAR superior to long term operations and heavy CPU loads than the i3/i5/i7 platform. I've taken the liberty of Uploading a White Paper from Intel to bolster my point.

You should have paid someone to better spec your system before buying this one...a velocity micro blog? really? I have been running 20+ blue iris machines for about 5 years now no problems...please...
9amps? 9 amps at 110v is an insane amount of power...how many WATTS???????????? that thing is a space heater.
You have no experiences with VMS or cams, that is evident...you simply thing bigger is better an more megapixels is better...take some time to learn the ins and outs before wasting any more money.

 

[ret60sp]

My cameras see at least 100 feet in the dark. See the attached. It is possible that you are correct, in the fact that I don't know the in's and out's of this software, nor the short-hand, trade language, acronym's, or other things that are commonly used in the various "guides" that are offered. I can do the basic: add a camera and set it to work with its maximum resolution and maximum audio for recording purposes, name it, but the other tweaks that are typically recommended are essentially a foreign language to me.

 

[fenderman]

My cameras see at least 100 feet in the dark. See the attached. It is possible that you are correct, in the fact that I don't know the in's and out's of this software, nor the short-hand, trade language, acronym's, or other things that are commonly used in the various "guides" that are offered. I can do the basic: add a camera and set it to work with its maximum resolution and maximum audio for recording purposes, name it, but the other tweaks that are typically recommended are essentially a foreign language to me.

lol those cameras cannot id anything at 100f and cannot capture license plates at any distance at night...
How many watts does your system draw?

 

[ret60sp]

I didn't "buy" this one. I purchased the parts and had someone else - with the time - to replace the motherboard, ram, CPU's and fans for me. I simply didn't have the time. I've been busy tending to the medical needs of my wife, who had hip surgery in Dallas Tx, and I needed my security system rebuilt ASAP. I needed it to work without issue. To solve the problem, I killed the fly with a sledgehammer.

The alternative: Find a "consultant" to give me a "recommendation" which I simply didn't have the time for (nor the patience). Every "security" company that I had previously hired to come out and make a recommendation ended up handing me an "estimate" that was far north of $2500 and most of them wanted to completely replace what I had with cameras that were not IP based, nor had any better resolution than what I already have in place.

So I'm not interested in a complete home security system overhaul that then requires a proprietary system that is managed by someone in India.

Ok, before you wet your pants here.... amps x volts = watts. 9x110 = 990 watts. Yes, that's one half the power consumed by a conventional hair dryer. BUT.... This 9 amps state is ONLY when it's under a 24 core 100% CPU load... NOT when it's just running Blue Iris. When it's just the OS and BI running (a 7-13% CPU load) the power consumed is a meager 130 watts. So put the fire out! Don't wet your pants!

Did I mention that this machine is used for more than just Blue Iris?

 

[ret60sp]

My new system uses 130 watts to manage my camera system. It only starts using more when I fire up the other programs and use it for what it is capable of.

I'm all eyes and ears for a better camera. Give me a make, model and price point for the camera you recommend and I'll consider it for my future needs. The pictures I sent are just pictures in a low resolution so I could upload them to this website. The highest resolution capture is about 10MB's per picture - not typically easily accepted by most websites.

 

[ret60sp]

The "ins and outs" you mention are difficult to learn when I don't speak the language. Imagine it if I were to have a conversation with you in the room and I was using engineering short-hand in the conversation... it wouldn't take long for you to get lost in the weeds and start to wonder what I am talking about, or if you even were in the right room. This is how I feel when I'm trying to find someone who can explain all of these confounded settings and what they mean in Blue Iris.

Like I said earlier, if you know someone in the NE Georgia area that is a Blue Iris expert and willing to get paid to show and teach ME this foreign language, please have them get in touch with me.

 

[ret60sp]

BTW - Condescension is not helpful on either of our parts here. I'll concede that I know little about IPCAMTALK and what the acronym means - Internet Protocol Camera Talk. I'm not asking you to concede to me. I'm obviously here for help. Notice the PS at the end of my letter to Matthew. I thought sharing an awesome system build, a system that should survive a decade without becoming completely obsolete due to Moore's Law, might be a good thing to share. Ken (from Blue Iris) recommended I share the email I sent to him and Matthew, and to share it on this website. I have seemingly offended you in doing so, and for that I apologize. I'm just a consumer trying to avoid the installation of a proprietary security system that might be hacked by foreigners or managed by the same. I'm not real keen on the idea of having a system that incorporates the same make, model and build of camera throughout. Why? Because one firmware update can render them all DOA and leave my home unmonitored when I'm out of town.

 

[ret60sp]

So that's it? Ridicule and no real help " You have no experiences with VMS or cams, that is evident...you simply thing bigger is better an more megapixels is better...take some time to learn the ins and outs before wasting any more money" - other than to tell me to learn more and to spend more time? Seriously? I'll have Ken at Blue Iris look this over and see if posting here is still his recommendation.

 

[fenderman]

which is it, 9 amps or 130w?
regardless, 130w is at least 80w more than an i7-7700 would consume...
start reading the dahua starlight threads...
stop wasting your money and start reading and learning...whoever sold you this system ripped you off big time

 

[ret60sp]

Ok, let me be as rude as you are determined to be. It is your mission here to insult people? I thought you were a "staff member". Why act like a jerk?

No ONE SOLD ME THIS SYSTEM! I HAD IT SPECIFICALLY BUILT to meet MY specifications. It is NOT ONLY a cam system. It does a number of other functions that you obviously cannot comprehend because you can only speak cam speak. You have no idea what else I do with the machine at the same time that I'm running BI (in the background), so stop being an a$$hol3 and get your head wrapped around the fact that this is not a PC used solely for IP Cameras.

I'm an engineer, and engineers use workstations. Workstations use Xeon CPU's for obvious reasons - if you don't know the reasons then you are not an engineer. So just stick to being the jerk moderator and of no help with people like me who are told to share my system build on this website.

I was asked specifically by Ken, who is the Tech Support guy for Blue Iris, to share my system build on this website as it might help others. I did, and what did I experience in return? Some jerk telling me how stupid I am for building a machine that is ten times more powerful than it needs to be. I know that already! I CHOSE to build it on an overkill capacity because it is powerful enough to run a home server, blue iris, a phone system, CAD, my HVAC program and still have enough overhead to mine cryptocurrency in its spare time. That's where the 9 amps comes into view mister knucklehead. Do you get it now? I wasn't ripped off. I built what I wanted, or - I had Matthew assemble the parts while I was out of town and couldn't build it myself.

Eventually, as camera technology and bandwidth requirements increase in the future, this machine will be used more for just home security and camera management if bandwidth and codecs become increasingly complex. Maybe then you'll find an appreciation for multiple uses of your machine. It is very convenient to have ONE large 48 inch Samsung screen in my office that I can do everything on and not have to switch back and forth from one machine to another - as previously was the case. I presume you wouldn't know because your PC needs are obviously standard and you aren't crunching numbers, data mining, or running any of the things that my machine has as a default load.

Obviously you don't understand that a PC can be built to perform more than one task. You obviously are not actually reading my responses or you would have understood that Blue Iris is NOT running alone on my system. When it is running BI alone it has a combined amperage draw of 1 amp @ 120 volts (I added the extra 10 watts as inefficiency overhead) so it's 130 watts. I do have a clamp meter. Since 1 amp at 120 VAC is the same as 120 watts (watts = amps x volts), and 120 watts x 24 hours = 2.88 Kw/day, my power consumption is 2.9 kilowatts per day. I pay $0.09 Kw for power. So my BI system costs $7.76 a month in power consumption. Big whoop!

Your i7-7700 has a 65 watt TDP which means it probably uses 35 watts at your current single load. When combined with the PSU efficiency (or inefficiency = <Platinum) your total watts consumed are very similar to my 2.88 kilowatts per day. Ok, so yours uses 2 Kw a day, so what. It uses $5/mo in power. This means your system (for the purpose of running Blue Iris) is $2/mo more "efficient" than mine. Your i7-7700 will hit a system and CPU limit MUCH sooner than my dual Xeon E5-2678's will. You OBVIOUSLY know nothing about XEON CPU's and their design purpose. They cost more because they are superior to the i3/i5/i7 product line with a similar release date. Xeons support ECC and i7's don't. Xeon's support multi-CPU setups and i7's dont. Xeon's come in packages that have as many as 15 cores and 30 threads per package, and the i7 is limited to 4 cores and 8 threads. So there is NO possible comparison where your high-end i7 would outperform a high-end XEON with the same release date. So get your head out of your arse and admit that you don't know what you are talking about. Don't believe me? Look it up on the Intel Ark.

Yes, my system is more expensive to build, but it does much more. It is the SUV of computers. It does have an eco-mode if I shut down the various apps I have running and choose to let it just manage the camera system. But it has the capacity to be a rock truck at the same time should I need the processing power to perform a complicated task like ............... well that's none of your business now isn't it.

So stop being a JERK. It makes people like me think poorly about the people who are supposed to be out there "helping" or "moderating" and on a website like this one people should be helping one another not slamming them for building a better mouse trap.

 

[ret60sp]

which is it, 9 amps or 130w?
regardless, 130w is at least 80w more than an i7-7700 would consume...
start reading the dahua starlight threads...
stop wasting your money and start reading and learning...whoever sold you this system ripped you off big time

BS - The starting amperage of the i7-7700 has it draw 53 watts. It idles at 18 watts (Bios only). With an OS only loaded it consumes 23 watts and under 50% load it's using 44 watts. It consumes 65 watts (TDP) at 100% load. At NO TIME is it ever using less than 23 watts (with the OS running) and if your Blue Iris is tasking the CPU to 22% your CPU alone is using 30+ watts. Then you have to translate that and add in the power consumed by the RAM, system board, video card, fans, hard drive(s), peripheral cards (if any) and factor in the conversion loss (inefficiency) of your PSU when converting 120 Vac into the various DC voltages used by the system. Add them all together and you too are probably using more than 100 watts of power just running your Blue Iris program on the OS with your i7 machine. My added 30 watts comes from the added CPU as well as the added RAM required for it. Yes my CPU's have a 130 watt TDP, but that's only when they are each using all 12 cores and 24 threads at 100% load.

 

[fenderman]

BS - The starting amperage of the i7-7700 has it draw 53 watts. It idles at 18 watts (Bios only). With an OS only loaded it consumes 23 watts and under 50% load it's using 44 watts. It consumes 65 watts (TDP) at 100% load. At NO TIME is it ever using less than 23 watts (with the OS running) and if your Blue Iris is tasking the CPU to 22% your CPU alone is using 30+ watts. Then you have to translate that and add in the power consumed by the RAM, system board, video card, fans, hard drive(s), peripheral cards (if any) and factor in the conversion loss (inefficiency) of your PSU when converting 120 Vac into the various DC voltages used by the system. Add them all together and you too are probably using more than 100 watts of power just running your Blue Iris program on the OS with your i7 machine. My added 30 watts comes from the added CPU as well as the added RAM required for it. Yes my CPU's have a 130 watt TDP, but that's only when they are each using all 12 cores and 24 threads at 100% load.

You have ZERO clue..note that i said i7-4770 not 7700...regadless
the i7-7700 under full load would be about 80w...I have tested the this..you are making stupid assumptions and calculations when this can all be verified with a killawatt type meter.
its clear that you LIED about your power usage...you never tested it, you guessed based on a SINGLE cpu tdp??????? Damn you are thick...
I am not using 100w...no guesses here...buy a killawatt meter...you will find that an i7-6700 system at 20 percent is drawing about 30w or so...

 

[fenderman]

Ok, let me be as rude as you are determined to be. It is your mission here to insult people? I thought you were a "staff member". Why act like a jerk?

No ONE SOLD ME THIS SYSTEM! I HAD IT SPECIFICALLY BUILT to meet MY specifications. It is NOT ONLY a cam system. It does a number of other functions that you obviously cannot comprehend because you can only speak cam speak. You have no idea what else I do with the machine at the same time that I'm running BI (in the background), so stop being an a$$hol3 and get your head wrapped around the fact that this is not a PC used solely for IP Cameras.

I'm an engineer, and engineers use workstations. Workstations use Xeon CPU's for obvious reasons - if you don't know the reasons then you are not an engineer. So just stick to being the jerk moderator and of no help with people like me who are told to share my system build on this website.

I was asked specifically by Ken, who is the Tech Support guy for Blue Iris, to share my system build on this website as it might help others. I did, and what did I experience in return? Some jerk telling me how stupid I am for building a machine that is ten times more powerful than it needs to be. I know that already! I CHOSE to build it on an overkill capacity because it is powerful enough to run a home server, blue iris, a phone system, CAD, my HVAC program and still have enough overhead to mine cryptocurrency in its spare time. That's where the 9 amps comes into view mister knucklehead. Do you get it now? I wasn't ripped off. I built what I wanted, or - I had Matthew assemble the parts while I was out of town and couldn't build it myself.

Eventually, as camera technology and bandwidth requirements increase in the future, this machine will be used more for just home security and camera management if bandwidth and codecs become increasingly complex. Maybe then you'll find an appreciation for multiple uses of your machine. It is very convenient to have ONE large 48 inch Samsung screen in my office that I can do everything on and not have to switch back and forth from one machine to another - as previously was the case. I presume you wouldn't know because your PC needs are obviously standard and you aren't crunching numbers, data mining, or running any of the things that my machine has as a default load.

Obviously you don't understand that a PC can be built to perform more than one task. You obviously are not actually reading my responses or you would have understood that Blue Iris is NOT running alone on my system. When it is running BI alone it has a combined amperage draw of 1 amp @ 120 volts (I added the extra 10 watts as inefficiency overhead) so it's 130 watts. I do have a clamp meter. Since 1 amp at 120 VAC is the same as 120 watts (watts = amps x volts), and 120 watts x 24 hours = 2.88 Kw/day, my power consumption is 2.9 kilowatts per day. I pay $0.09 Kw for power. So my BI system costs $7.76 a month in power consumption. Big whoop!

Your i7-7700 has a 65 watt TDP which means it probably uses 35 watts at your current single load. When combined with the PSU efficiency (or inefficiency = <Platinum) your total watts consumed are very similar to my 2.88 kilowatts per day. Ok, so yours uses 2 Kw a day, so what. It uses $5/mo in power. This means your system (for the purpose of running Blue Iris) is $2/mo more "efficient" than mine. Your i7-7700 will hit a system and CPU limit MUCH sooner than my dual Xeon E5-2678's will. You OBVIOUSLY know nothing about XEON CPU's and their design purpose. They cost more because they are superior to the i3/i5/i7 product line with a similar release date. Xeons support ECC and i7's don't. Xeon's support multi-CPU setups and i7's dont. Xeon's come in packages that have as many as 15 cores and 30 threads per package, and the i7 is limited to 4 cores and 8 threads. So there is NO possible comparison where your high-end i7 would outperform a high-end XEON with the same release date. So get your head out of your arse and admit that you don't know what you are talking about. Don't believe me? Look it up on the Intel Ark.

Yes, my system is more expensive to build, but it does much more. It is the SUV of computers. It does have an eco-mode if I shut down the various apps I have running and choose to let it just manage the camera system. But it has the capacity to be a rock truck at the same time should I need the processing power to perform a complicated task like ............... well that's none of your business now isn't it.

So stop being a JERK. It makes people like me think poorly about the people who are supposed to be out there "helping" or "moderating" and on a website like this one people should be helping one another not slamming them for building a better mouse trap.

You can tell ken that I said that your $2500 build is DUMB and that NO ONE should ever consider it. Its really sooo bad that I thought this was a joke! I am helping others by pointing out how silly this is. See my post above explaining that you lied about power consumption numbers on your system. You dont know how to measure power consumption, thats for certain...one day its 9 amps the next day its one amp...buy a killawatt meter its stupid proof and should work even for you. You should NOT be running anything else on a VMS system..it should be dedicated.