Thank you so much! yes i did read the entire 7pages of this thread. I did find several SFF computers but all require me to install a HD...was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a ready to go SFF with all the specs and HD that I need. The NVR cost 500-700$ so its cool if I spend that on a ready to go SFF. Any suggestions? thank you very much
Thank you so much! yes i did read the entire 7pages of this thread. I did find several SFF computers but all require me to install a HD...was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a ready to go SFF with all the specs and HD that I need. The NVR cost 500-700$ so its cool if I spend that on a ready to go SFF. Any suggestions? thank you very much
Dell Optiplex Micro 7010 with a Core i5 processor is one suggestion, if you're looking for seriously small form factor.
These systems are sometimes called 'micro' and other times USFF (ultra-small-form-factor).
These systems are sometimes called 'micro' and other times USFF (ultra-small-form-factor).
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That one looks great thank you. I do see it on Amazon but only has 1 hard drive but if I understand correctly I would need one with 2 hard drives (one for the OS / one for BI and recordings) is this accurate? If so I'd like to buy a SFF/micro that has this already. Thank you for your help!
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It actually has a single SSD inside, plus connection for a 2.5-inch form factor HDD or SDD. Extremely easy to add an HDD in there.
Oh ugggh I guess my options are buy something like that and add an HDD...darn i was hoping to be able to just buy the complete SFF with everything lol thank you Frog!
You are really better off buying a second hard drive for BI use. This is because you really need to get a "surveillance" or "server" quality HD. Most "consumer" grade HDs are not designed for the 24/7 activity that recording CCTV cameras is going to produce. They work fine while they last, but they will die much sooner than a "server" HD that is designed for 24/7 use and therefore has a much higher life expectancy (usually stated in hours or yearly data transfer amounts). These server drives are more expensive, but well worth it in the long run.
Most of us would suggest the Western Digital "Purple" hard drives for CCTV use.
PS - many times the larger drives have longer life expectancies even within the same brand/model.
kshitijsri82
n3wb
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Just keep in mind many have experienced issues with the 2.5" for surveillance video.
kshitijsri82
n3wb
Really simple to build your own but if you feel you must spend $700 for a sff elitedesk I‘ll sell you mine.
SFF elitedesk, $100 with SSD
purple hd 8 gb <$200
30 minutes of work if your slow and watch videos of how to while you work.
SFF elitedesk, $100 with SSD
purple hd 8 gb <$200
30 minutes of work if your slow and watch videos of how to while you work.
Two quickies please for you experts:
#1 I have read that using a WD purple surveillance is ideal but I already have a PC with an extra 3GB Samsung 980 SSD NVMe M.2 drive that is not being used whatsoever. From what I've read this isn't ideal since it will fail quicker than the purple HD's but will it work other just fine other than failing sooner? or is there another reason not to use this style of HD?
#2 I've also read where people have asked about using their current PC, adding BI, and running their personal PC 24hrs (or some stated when they go to bed etc etc)
So given that PC's cpu's and gpu's are rarely taxed to the max (mine is an Intel i7-11700K with 32gb ram and EVGA 3090 GPU) can someone provide exact specific reasons why it wouldnt be a good idea to just run my computer 24hrs/day with BI in the background on it's own dedicated harddrive for video storage? I do understand this will put out more heat than a SFF running only BI but since I just use my computer for simple things like youtube, web-browsing, and a few games (which I could move to playing games on my laptop as well) what specifically would be some reasons not to use my PC with my specs/usage given? If I don't mind the additional heat and knowing that my components may have a lower lifespan why wouldn't I just use this?
Again I realllllly want to thank you guys for being so helpful, you guys have been awesome!!
kshitijsri82
n3wb
I am not an expert but For ques 1 i think its fine to use the current unused ssd for storing security data. I am going to do same with my current hdd until it fails and then i will replace it with surveillance quality hdd.
for ques 2, if you have a computer available, then its fine to use it. I dont think there is an upper limit to the specs.
really appreciate your thoughts! would love to hear from some of the experts too
Yep on the SSD if you recognize it may wear out sooner and you don't keep Windows or BI on the drive so that the only thing you lose are videos, go for it.
While your computer may be more than capable, just like we wouldn't check email or surf YouTube on an NVR, that is essentially what using a computer for BI is.
Running other programs also means you open the risk of viruses and updates and things that don't play nice with BI and next thing you know some other program is competing for a common file BI uses and next thing you know BI becomes inoperable and you don't know until something happens and you find out you don't have video.
While your computer may be more than capable, just like we wouldn't check email or surf YouTube on an NVR, that is essentially what using a computer for BI is.
Running other programs also means you open the risk of viruses and updates and things that don't play nice with BI and next thing you know some other program is competing for a common file BI uses and next thing you know BI becomes inoperable and you don't know until something happens and you find out you don't have video.
This is ok by me, since when my SSD dies it'd have to be pretty unlucky timing that I actually need the footage because 99.99% of the time the footage won't be needed. The .01% of time where some incident happens and my SSD died well that's just unlucky.
It is actually VERY VERY rare that I check email or watch YT on this PC. I only stated this to give the indication that I use it lightly. I typically use my laptop for these things. My desktop where I'll have BI running I mainly use for work. Have a few low CPU usage software programs I use for work. So for 8ish hours/day I'll be working on this PC.
Hopefully I don't run into any viruses the way that I use my PC as I said above, but I'll for sure be even more cautious. Thank you for the response!!
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor