Xeon vs i7 Haswell

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GaretJax

Getting the hang of it
Feb 16, 2015
104
7
Hello all,

I have read numerous times about the recommendation to go to an i7 chip for Blue Iris. Any thoughts on how the Xeon chips would compare? They have a larger L3 cache, they support ECC RAM and they are generally chips used in servers vs an i7 which is generally a workstation chip.

Can I assume that a Xeon chip would do as well as or better than an i7 chip for Blue Iris? Thanks.

PS - Dell has a 50% off coupon (with $9 shipping) on refurbished machines right now so if you are looking to pick up a Blue Iris machine, some pretty good deals can be had.
 
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I bought this for my cams.. T20 Dell Xeon 4mb ram 1 tb hd.. running hikvision PCNVR 2 cams , and computer at highest runs 20% and memory about 35%..if that helps.
had for quite cheap as they go on sale all the time see slickdeals for like 2.xx do not remember (bought from Dell site).
bought 20 dollar video card and Samsung digital drive to run computer 256gb and use 1TB that came with unit for cam storage...works out well..running windows 10

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859155113
 
Xeon isn't going to deliver better performance with Blue Iris than an i5 or i7 with an equivalent benchmark score. What you gain with Xeon is the ECC memory (which is of questionable usefulness, since most of us run non-ECC without ever having a problem) mostly. But a Xeon should be fine as long as it supports Quick Sync.
 
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bp2008 said:
Xeon isn't going to deliver better performance with Blue Iris than an i5 or i7 with an equivalent benchmark score. What you gain with Xeon is the ECC memory (which is of questionable usefulness, since most of us run non-ECC without ever having a problem) mostly. But a Xeon should be fine as long as it supports Quick Sync.
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As best I can tell, none of the Xeon processors support Quick Sync.
 
The problem with Xeon in a lot of cases is that the motherboard is built to support a server so it can be quite difficult to find video cards that can handle CCTV streaming for server motherboards.
 
SSNapier said:
The problem with Xeon in a lot of cases is that the motherboard is built to support a server so it can be quite difficult to find video cards that can handle CCTV streaming for server motherboards.
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OK - mine is a Dell T5500 with [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon X5650. For video it has Nvidia Quadro 4000 (2048 MB). Any thoughts on how it would run Blue Iris?
 
GaretJax said:
OK - mine is a Dell T5500 with [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon X5650. For video it has Nvidia Quadro 4000 (2048 MB). Any thoughts on how it would run Blue Iris?
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Ive have seen users who have complained older xeon do not perform well with blue iris even if they have a decent passmark score. They are also very power hungry. Your old server is inefficient. You can buy a modern haswell i5 fourth gen pc for 300. Your processor also does not support quicksync by intel which is needed for hardware acceleration. If you tell us how many cameras you intend to run and their resolution we can better guide you. That processor is 6 years old and is a terrible choice for a blue iris machine.
 
SSNapier said:
The problem with Xeon in a lot of cases is that the motherboard is built to support a server so it can be quite difficult to find video cards that can handle CCTV streaming for server motherboards.
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You don't need much of a graphics card to handle CCTV streaming.
 
bp2008 said:
You don't need much of a graphics card to handle CCTV streaming.
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I know, but I have run into 3 or 4 cases in the last 2 years where a Xeon powered computer had some terribly under powered on-board graphics that could not cut the mustard, and the only real options for a video card that worked were $400 or more. Tough to justify that in most cases.
 
SSNapier said:
I know, but I have run into 3 or 4 cases in the last 2 years where a Xeon powered computer had some terribly under powered on-board graphics that could not cut the mustard, and the only real options for a video card that worked were $400 or more. Tough to justify that in most cases.
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Heh. Well, older integrated/on-board graphics have been notoriously bad for a long time but have been improving rapidly thanks to Intel putting GPU on the CPU. I think it is quite okay on some of the newest Xeon CPUs, many of which do have Quick Sync support (which is now an important spec for Blue Iris). However many, many Xeon models do not have integrated graphics and would be inferior choices for Blue Iris.

Examples:

22nm model, with iGPU: http://ark.intel.com/products/80915/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1276-v3-8M-Cache-3_60-GHz

Similar 14nm model, without iGPU: http://ark.intel.com/products/88174/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1270-v5-8M-Cache-3_60-GHz
 
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5600 Xeon's are old. I am still tweaking everything but when I stared testing BI it was on my oldest server, a dual X5687 Xeon. Granted that was a windows 7 VM on top of 2012r2 but even with the server barely doing anything else and BI getting 8 threads, when I tested that system with 3x 3MP cameras it was struggling. The Quadro card won't help, I was running remote FX with a similar card and BI has only just started supporting hardware acceleration but only with Intel integrated GPU's. If you want' to go the Xeon route, do something newer. An E5 V2 is relatively inexpensive now through ebay, you can get DDR3 REG ECC cheep but BI doesn't really utilize a lot of RAM.

If you really want ECC, look into E3 V3 or V4 CPU's. I went with an E3 1275 V3 and 8GB ECC and those same 3x 3MP cams are barely pushing the CPU plus it uses a lot less power. The E3 depending on model is basically the same as a desktop processor, in this case an 3.5GHz i7 Haswell. On the plus side you can go with a server mainboard and if you like the thought of going headless, IPMI is an option for managing everything including BIOS access.

What many people miss is i7 and Xeon are just a brand. i7 is up to generation 6 and Xeon has been around since the Pentium II days. The architecture beneath each chip combined with the clockspeed and cache are what really makes the CPU. Just because you have a Xeon doesn't mean it is fast. A Xeon could mean a 400MHz Pentium II or an 18 core 2.6GHz eight processor system with nearly 20 years between the technology, there's no comparison.
 
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I have a 1231v3 in one of my machines, I figured I'd be using a dedicated gpu anyways on this one so why pay $100 more for the i7? It's basically the same.
 
fenderman said:
because at this time blue iris still uses mostly cpu, it cant even uses a dedicated gpu yet, only intel hd with quicksync..the i7 is needed in some larger setups.
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Quick Sync makes enough difference that I would not buy any CPU for Blue Iris that doesn't include it, unless said CPU was at an absurdly low price.
 
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fenderman said:
Ive have seen users who have complained older xeon do not perform well with blue iris even if they have a decent passmark score. They are also very power hungry. Your old server is inefficient. You can buy a modern haswell i5 fourth gen pc for 300. Your processor also does not support quicksync by intel which is needed for hardware acceleration. If you tell us how many cameras you intend to run and their resolution we can better guide you. That processor is 6 years old and is a terrible choice for a blue iris machine.
Click to expand...

fenderman said:
because at this time blue iris still uses mostly cpu, it cant even uses a dedicated gpu yet, only intel hd with quicksync..the i7 is needed in some larger setups.
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Thanks for your responses. I don't have many answers yet in terms of what and how many. I learn by doing and was hoping to set up a 2, 3 and 4 mega pixel cameras to learn their strengths and weaknesses so I could actually make those decisions. This is for my home.

When you say that an i7 is needed for some larger setups, how many cameras is "larger" in your mind?

Asked another way, how many cameras could I look at deploying using an i5 before I would need to go to an i7?
 
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GaretJax said:
Thanks for your responses. I don't have many answers yet in terms of what and how many. I learn by doing and was hoping to set up a 2, 3 and 4 mega pixel cameras to learn their strengths and weaknesses so I could actually make those decisions. This is for my home.

When you say that an i7 is needed for some larger setups, how many cameras is "larger" in your mind?

Asked another way, how many cameras could I look at deploying using an i5 before I would need to go to an i7?
Click to expand...
At this time i would stick to 20mp or so for an i5 haswell (its important to differentiate between processors not all i5's are the same)..this should keep the system at around 50 percent. As hardware acceleration for intel hd improves that number will change.
 
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GaretJax said:
Thanks for your responses. I don't have many answers yet in terms of what and how many. I learn by doing and was hoping to set up a 2, 3 and 4 mega pixel cameras to learn their strengths and weaknesses so I could actually make those decisions. This is for my home.

When you say that an i7 is needed for some larger setups, how many cameras is "larger" in your mind?

Asked another way, how many cameras could I look at deploying using an i5 before I would need to go to an i7?
Click to expand...

Thanks to Quick Sync, an i5-4690 or similar quad core i5 CPU could handle a lot. Likely more than an i7 of the same generation would have handled before Blue Iris added support for Quick Sync decoding. Consider the load I put on my i7-3770k. I run 20 cameras. CPU usage floats around 20% with Blue Iris running as a background service, but goes up to 35-40% with a remote view open. Camera frame rates and resolutions are as follows:



I'd say this load would be completely manageable on a 3rd or 4th generation i5 CPU, but I would not want to go much higher than that before moving up to an i7. To run higher frame rates than I am running, you would want an i7 also.
 
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bp2008 said:
Thanks to Quick Sync, an i5-4690 or similar quad core i5 CPU could handle a lot. Likely more than an i7 of the same generation would have handled before Blue Iris added support for Quick Sync decoding. Consider the load I put on my i7-3770k. I run 20 cameras. CPU usage floats around 20% with Blue Iris running as a background service, but goes up to 35-40% with a remote view open. Camera frame rates and resolutions are as follows:



I'd say this load would be completely manageable on a 3rd or 4th generation i5 CPU, but I would not want to go much higher than that before moving up to an i7. To run higher frame rates than I am running, you would want an i7 also.
Click to expand...

This image is incredibly helpful. It generates a lot of questions for me. Off to do some more research.
 
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