Will BI fill these needs?

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I have installed a number of all-in-one systems in the past, as well as a few I5 systems with GeniusVision. MY problem with all in one systems is the reduced resolutions with the additional cameras. Some saying 4x1080 cameras when it can really only have 1 cam at 1080 and the other 3 are 720. If this still an issue or are new systems more capable now?

I have the opportunity to bid on a project. Calls for 20-24 cameras at 3 or 4mp, 10-15fps. Cams would probably be Hikvisions/Dahuas/ or whatever are mostly recommended here.

I was pricing an i7-7700 with 16gb rams, 128gb m.2 ssd for os, 2x 6tb or 8tb hdds for storage[possibly 4 for a raid1], dual intel nics, all in a rack mount case as per the clients request. A gigabit 24 port poe swith on one nic with the cameras and the other nic to the work network for viewing. I am familiar with direct-to-disk and the HW acceleration on the 7700.

Would this system handle those needs using BI?

Also could it handle motion detection on most if not all cams? Or 24/7 only. I know that's were those all in one systems can come out on top, allowing the camera to do the motion detection.

I was looking at refurbished servers with 6 core cpus; I really like the fact of redundant power supply, some already have LSI cards, easily accessible HDD's, multiple Intel nics already. But from what I have read here it, I understand an i7 build to be superior still.

One other question, would their be any benefit to using a SFP+ up-link with 10gig link to the switch, or would it not be necessary. Switch price doubles as most switches that fit the criteria and have SFP+ are 48p and not 24.

Looking forward to your responses, reading reply's on similar questions have already answered a lot of the questions I had. Thank you.
 

bp2008

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No need for 10 gigabit. None at all. Fiber optics can be nice for electrical isolation purposes (power surges can't travel through fiber optic cable) but otherwise also useless if you don't need extreme long range on one cable.

Blue Iris / i7-7700 could probably handle the load you propose. 20 cameras at 3 megapixels and 10 FPS each is 600 MP/s (megapixels per second) which is quite doable. Increase that to 4 megapixels at 10 FPS (x 20 cameras) and you have 800 MP/s. That is about as high as I would try to run. For comparison, I am running 630 MP/s (which happens to be 17700 kB/s or 141.6 Mbps total bit rate) on an i7-3770K, not overclocked. As optimized as I can get the settings, Blue Iris runs with 30% CPU usage and a few % in System and System interrupts processes (caused by hardware acceleration). Lets call it 35% total usage. I have a 4K monitor connected to this system, and if i have the Blue Iris GUI maximized on there, it raises CPU usage a full 25% (BlueIris.exe roughly 55% plus the System and System interrupts usage = about 60% total). This with a live preview frame rate limit of 6 FPS. I am even feeding the monitor with an Nvidia graphics card, which reduces the GUI's CPU usage somewhat. Usage goes up of course during clip playback, when remote viewing clients are connected, etc, and you always want some CPU time left over for other processes (windows update, etc).

Keep in mind none of this is really set in stone. This person for example is still struggling to go beyond about 500 MP/s on an i7-6700 before CPU usage goes sky high. The situation has me stumped. Up and running, have a few small issues

It depends on the client of course, but you should suggest 2 MP Dahua Starlight cameras. Those will do better in low light than any affordable 3 or 4 MP camera, and be less of a burden on a Blue Iris machine. 24x 2MP cameras at 10 FPS is 480 MP/s, or at 15 FPS is 720 MP/s. I would expect both to run okay on an i7-7700.

One more thing. If you are going to build this PC from parts, use an i7-7700k. It is clocked significantly higher and doesn't cost much more considering the overall cost of the system. It should give you a little more breathing room. If you were planning to save cash and buy something refurbished though, you probably won't find the K model cheaply.
 
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