Used PC or server for Blue Iris

[mosinman24680]

I'm trying to figure out if what hardware I have would work for Blue Iris for the obvious cost savings.

Currently I'm running an older Dell 410 with 2x Xeon E5649. I have a couple VM's for firewall and on-the-go VPN to the house.

Would this configuration be sufficient for processing data from cameras if they do the encoding themselves?

I'd throw as many cores and as much RAM as I could at it.
Unsure how many cameras or what resolution they'd be so for this example lets assume 12 cameras running 4k at H265.

Idea would be to store the data and view on demand any camera via PC or web app.

 

[VorlonFrog]

While that dual Xeon has plenty of horsepower, it also is much older tech, generates more heat, and does NOT have Intel QuickSync technology, which is crucial for Blue Iris processing of h.264 video.

 

[mosinman24680]

Ohhh ok, I see.
Guess I have to NOT be cheap

Thanks VorlonFrog

 

[SouthernYankee]

I believe that BI will only run on a single CPU. It can not use a dual CPU.

I would recommend a single standalone PC, run only bi and widows 10..

 

[VorlonFrog]

Also use an SSD of at least 256 GB as the system drive (C: ) with a 4 TB or larger WD Purple drive (D: ) for video storage.

 

[StratRider]

Also use an SSD of at least 256 GB as the system drive (C: ) with a 4 TB or larger WD Purple drive (D: ) for video storage.

Why 256 for a dedicated machine ?
Win10 only takes about 20 gig and certainly BI only takes a few gig if that.
I've been considering SSD's for a dedicated BI machine and just can't figure out the need for a large one. Thanks.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I run 120 GB ssd on my BI windows 10 machine, It has a little less than 60GB used on the SSD.
All video data is stored on a 4 TB WD purple.

 

[Rickoo]

I've wondered this as well. Would seem a smaller drive would more than suffice.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I would not go smaller than 120 GB. There are NTFS files,system files like pagefile.sys, swapfile.sys... , and BI files that will grow over time. Not big time growth, but grow.

 

[VorlonFrog]

Windows 10 updates take up a lot of space.
If your clips database is on the SSD, it can consume several GB.
With only 128GB, you could find yourself somewhat constrained.

 

[mosinman24680]

So I found this and appears to be what I need.
6700, 16g ram
HP documents show ability for 2 hard drives

HP ProDesk 600 G2 SFF Desktop Core i7-6700 3.40GHz 16GB RAM NO HDD MXL63219RB | eBay

All components that are present have been FULLY TESTED using the PC-Doctor program.

www.ebay.com

 

[immageek]

and does NOT have Intel QuickSync technology, which is crucial for Blue Iris processing of h.264 video.

With the release of BI 5.1.0.0 yesterday and them adding nVidia encoder support, it would be interesting to see how an nVidia card compares to QS. Where if he had a Xeon machine laying around and could slap in a nvidia card it may work out fine. But there are now some Xeon processors that do have an iGPU so things could change a bit.

 

[fenderman]

With the release of BI 5.1.0.0 yesterday and them adding nVidia encoder support, it would be interesting to see how an nVidia card compares to QS. Where if he had a Xeon machine laying around and could slap in a nvidia card it may work out fine. But there are now some Xeon processors that do have an iGPU so things could change a bit.

nvidia support has been around since 2018 in v4. Your result with be a power hungry space heater.

 

[immageek]

nvidia support has been around since 2018 in v4. Your result with be a power hungry space heater.

Well this update makes use of the newer encoder and they seem to make a big deal over it. But who knows what this new version will do since it just came out. I should move my BI over to me Xeon rig and get a card and pass it through and see how it works. There's plenty of ones that don't consume a ton of power, contrary to popular beleif, even the Dell 710/720s aren't that bad.

 

[fenderman]

Well this update makes use of the newer encoder and they seem to make a big deal over it. But who knows what this new version will do since it just came out. I should move my BI over to me Xeon rig and get a card and pass it through and see how it works. There's plenty of ones that don't consume a ton of power, contrary to popular beleif, even the Dell 710/720s aren't that bad.

There is nothing new in this update with respect to nvidia. You are confused.
The dell 710/720 are horrific for power consumption compared to a modern machine. Its a suckers choice, pay your electric company rather than yourself. The nvidia card just makes things much worse.

 

[immageek]

There is nothing new in this update with respect to nvidia. You are confused.

Ok, the log file seems to make a big deal over it. Especially since they have a link to a list that shows support for only the new cards. If I never noticed it in the other updates, then ok, but I don't remember seeing it.

The dell 710/720 are horrific for power consumption compared to a modern machine. Its a suckers choice, pay your electric company rather than yourself. The nvidia card just makes things much worse.

No they aren't. Have you even used one? Mine idle at 60 watts. That's nothing. Yes, I know a little SFF HP or Dell are 20 or so watts, but a machine with 10 times the compute power with 60 watt draw is not "horrific". Add in a 40 watt nVidia card since that's all a passive pci-e slot can handle at best, again, isn't a power hog. I'm pretty sure you're confused on this part. To each their own, but I'd rather have a more useful Xeon server running eSXI and hosting multiple OSes and not needing a separate router, camera server and or NAS, when an all in one will consume less power, that's less of a suckers choice. But, I'm not going to argue with you on this, I own and run servers like these and also these little SFF machines and don't see much difference in power draw. Old Dell 2950s, sure, but not the more recent gen servers.

 

[fenderman]

Ok, the log file seems to make a big deal over it. Especially since they have a link to a list that shows support for only the new cards. If I never noticed it in the other updates, then ok, but I don't remember seeing it.


No they aren't. Have you even used one? Mine idle at 60 watts. That's nothing. Yes, I know a little SFF HP or Dell are 20 or so watts, but a machine with 10 times the power with 60 watt draw is not "horrific". Add in a 40 watt nVidia card since that's all a passive pci-e slot can handle at best, again, isn't a power hog. I'm pretty sure you're confused on this part. To each their own, but I'd rather have a more useful Xeon server running eSXI and hosting multiple OSes and not needing a separate router, camera server and or NAS, when an all in one will consume less power, that's less of a suckers choice. But, I'm not going to argue with you on this, I own and run servers like these and also these little SFF machines and don't see much difference in power draw. Old Dell 2950s, sure, but not the more recent gen servers.

There is nothing mentioned about nvidia in the update section. You are confusing it with the blue iris 5 release notes. The nvida cards have been tested and proven inefficient.
Idle wattage is irrelevant, however, for the record, my modern hp elitedesk pc's idle at 6-7w HP Elitedesk SFF G4. The older ones (fourth gen) idle at about 16w. Put your machine under your some load and it will skyrocket. Even a 50w difference translates to 100 per year in some parts of the country. These crappy old space heater servers deserve to be in the trash.
Only fools run old spaceheater servers like the 710 to "save" money.

 

[immageek]

There is nothing mentioned about nvidia in the update section. You are confusing it with the blue iris 5 release notes.

This is in recent features for the new version of BI, under the Updates section....

• Nvidia CUDA support for hardware accelerated video encoding. See Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix for compatibility.
• Nvidia CUDA support for hardware accelerated video decoding of H.264, H.265, MPEG4 and MJPEG

Not sure what or where you're reading, but I am reading under the update section, not release notes or anything like that.

put your machine under your some load and it will skyrocket.

With 6, 7200RPM drives running FreeNAS, with Plex running and streaming 2 4K streams it peaks at 120watts. oooo... so power hungry!

Even a 50w difference translates to 100 per year in some parts of the country.

Ok, so your real beef is with crappy power companies. As it doesn't cost me much more than it did without it to run it. My bill went up maybe $5 a month.

These crappy old space heater servers deserve to be in the trash.
Only fools run old spaceheater servers like the 710 to "save" money.

LOL. This is too funny. Only fools think these things are space heaters in the first place. Learn how to build a server and they aren't. My custom built Xeon runs cooler than the HP EliteDesk 400 G3 SFF or Dell 7010 SFF I have. When it comes to shear power and multi-tasking, my 710 will destroy that weak little SFF. Why have a bunch of single purpose machines, multiple each of them you have running. Like I said, I put 6 devices into 1 machine and turned off the others, that alone recoups and saves cost. But whatever dude, you enjoy what you want, and I will too. A few extra watts doesn't effect my lifestyle one bit.[/QUOTE]

 

[fenderman]

This is in recent features for the new version of BI, under the Updates section....

• Nvidia CUDA support for hardware accelerated video encoding. See Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix for compatibility.
• Nvidia CUDA support for hardware accelerated video decoding of H.264, H.265, MPEG4 and MJPEG

Not sure what or where you're reading, but I am reading under the update section, not release notes or anything like that.




With 6, 7200RPM drives running FreeNAS, with Plex running and streaming 2 4K streams it peaks at 120watts. oooo... so power hungry!


Ok, so your real beef is with crappy power companies. As it doesn't cost me much more than it did without it to run it. My bill went up maybe $5 a month.


LOL. This is too funny. Only fools think these things are space heaters in the first place. Learn how to build a server and they aren't. My custom built Xeon runs cooler than the HP EliteDesk 400 G3 SFF or Dell 7010 SFF I have. When it comes to shear power and multi-tasking, my 710 will destroy that weak little SFF. Why have a bunch of single purpose machines, multiple each of them you have running. Like I said, I put 6 devices into 1 machine and turned off the others, that alone recoups and saves cost. But whatever dude, you enjoy what you want, and I will too. A few extra watts doesn't effect my lifestyle one bit.

Updates are documented in the help file when they are released you can see for yourself. The list of "recent features" on the blue iris website is 1) not really recent, 2) does not mention in what version of the software the feature was added. Not sure why you think it was added with the latest small update.
This was available since the release of version 5 and the link was in the original v5 help file. With respect to power consumption, that is exactly my point, you are running cheap ass old servers that use a ton of power to "Save" money (i know I know, you have a million bux, but CHOOSE to run old servers) when in fact you are not saving anything. Its actually costing you more.
You are further confused. Space heater refers to the heat generated by the unit, that does not change with cooling.
You again, failing to use logic, can place all your vm's on one modern efficient machine. This will SAVE you money. Instead, you use old crap that costs you money. Buy a killawatt meter and see for yourself. You will find that you are a sucker.
Finally, its cute that you compare your machines without comparing the processors.

 

[immageek]

With respect to power consumption, that is exactly my point, you are running cheap ass old servers that use a ton of power to "Save" money (i know I know, you have a million bux, but CHOOSE to run old servers) when in fact you are not saving anything. Its actually costing you more.

Except in reality, I AM saving money, and they aren't "cheap ass old servers that use a ton of power". You clearly have never used one, let alone have ever owned one. But ignorance is bliss.

You are further confused. Space heater refers to the heat generated by the unit, that does not change with cooling.

Again, I'm not the confused one here. System cooling have EVERYTHING to do with heat generated by the system. But since you've never worked on these systems, you don't understand how this all works, especially thermodynamics.

You again, failing to use logic, can place all your vm's on one modern efficient machine. This will SAVE you money. Instead, you use old crap that costs you money. Buy a killawatt meter and see for yourself. You will find that you are a sucker.

Again, the only sucker is you. I already have a Kil-A-Watt meter, I TOLD you my power draw, it's not my problem you choose not to believe me. And again, one of those dinky SFFs will NOT "run all the VMs I want". With what I am running on one, it'll get choked out in a minute. Those machines simply do not have the core count to do much, let alone the ability to have enough RAM. You clearly don't understand server technology, and that's fine to admit, but I know you won't. Go read up and understand what and how FreeNAS works, what eSXI is and what it takes to stream multiple 4K video streams with Plex. You think I'm dumb, but I'm far from it. I've been doing this way longer than you can imagine.

Finally, its cute that you compare your machines without comparing the processors.

It's cute that you can't even understand that a quad core i7 that is the max processor in most of those SFFs can't compare to an e5-2650 octa core Xeon or dual 12 core Xeons.