Will this computer do the job?

[toreupfeet]

I am looking for a computer to run BI and DeepStack. Here are my cameras:

7 Amcrest IP8M-T2599EW 8MP PoE turrets
2 Amcrest AD110 1080P doorbells
and maybe 2 or 3 Wansview Q6-W 1080P wifi cams

I would like to have the cameras all record substreams 24/7 with mainstream activation (with sound, ideally) when triggered. I'm looking at a new Dell XPS 8940 with an i7-11700, 16GB, 512 SSD ...and a Purple HDD for backup.
I'd like the computer to be sufficiently robust such that I wouldn't be putting it under heavy strain with seven 8MP cams and five 1080P cams (running BI and DeepStack). Would this computer meet that objective?

And, would there be a benefit to adding more RAM? I'd consider running a VirtualBox Home Assistant on the same machine if it were possible. If I were to do so (and even if I were not to), would it be advisable to increase the RAM to 32GB?

 

[Flintstone61]

that'll work fine.
Im on a i5-8500 with 18 cams. recording to 2 WD drives. 24GB ram. 12TB storage. 24/7 record +trigger CPu running about 13% when no motion. Get hundreds of motions a day. also view another 16 channel DVR on Same PC simultaneously as need, ramping CPU to 30%.

 

[Flintstone61]

I'm a big fan of pc's with MAX ram running Windows on an SSD...But this machine is fine with 1 empty slot.
My other BI machine is my home Dell Optiplex with 32GB ram on a 4th gen i5 with 9 cams. 11% CPU and one WD purp 8TB

 

[toreupfeet]

that'll work fine.
Im on a i5-8500 with 18 cams. recording to 2 WD drives. 24GB ram. 12TB storage. 24/7 record +trigger CPu running about 13% when no motion. Get hundreds of motions a day. also view another 16 channel DVR on Same PC simultaneously as need, ramping CPU to 30%.

I'm a big fan of pc's with MAX ram running Windows on an SSD...But this machine is fine with 1 empty slot.
My other BI machine is my home Dell Optiplex with 32GB ram on a 4th gen i5 with 9 cams. 11% CPU and one WD purp 8TB

Thanks for the quick response. My i5-2500 is not holding up well even with one 8MP and five 1080P, so I'm aiming high.
Granted, that i5 doesn't have hyperthreading, and it's running my HA on VirtualBox, so I'm asking a lot of it.

So, that Dell i7-11700 with 32GB should allow me to confidently run HA as well, it seems. Maybe I could even keep one of the 8MP at 100% with sound 24/7 in such case? Any thoughts?

 

[Flintstone61]

Yeah, you'll be able to do that. New wrinkle, the need for 100% HA has come down, in recent versions of BI last 6-9 months. Im running the version from June of 2021. Hardware acceleration is off on 15 of 18 cameras. Sound is being recorded 24/7 on 10 cams. Once I got well versed in the recording/ trigger/ pretrigger video buffer, I was able to turn the cams down in FPS from 30 to 12. some are even at 8FPS.

 

[toreupfeet]

Yeah, you'll be able to do that. New wrinkle, the need for 100% HA has come down, in recent versions of BI last 6-9 months. Im running the version from June of 2021. Hardware acceleration is off on 15 of 18 cameras. Sound is being recorded 24/7 on 10 cams. Once I got well versed in the recording/ trigger/ pretrigger video buffer, I was able to turn the cams down in FPS from 30 to 12. some are even at 8FPS.

I'm going to spend some time learning the ins and outs of BI once I've moved into my new PC. I have a lot to learn. That's an interesting concept, to keep high-resource settings on some cams and counteract with low fps on less-vital cams. If you're capturing at 8FPS and a fast-moving object enters the frame between captures, might the buffered video still result in a trigger? Or does the trigger only result from motion in one of the 8 frames?

 

[wittaj]

Depending on where you are located, you can probably find a refurbished computer coming off a lease for a lot cheaper. Maybe a 6th or 7th gen for half of the cost of a new computer.

A brand new 11th gen computer isn't necessary.

A member here runs 50 cams on a 4th gen at 30% CPU and another runs 18 cameras on a 3rd gen at 12% CPU.

Most have seen that 16GB of RAM is more than enough. I have way more cameras than you have and I under 3GB of RAM used by BI.

You are overthinking what surveillance cameras intended goal is...No reason to run more than 15FPS, and many us have cams running at 10 to 12 FPS. Movies for the big screen are shot at 24FPS, so I do not think we need 30FPS for these cameras LOL. The goal is to get a clean image, not smooth motion. Shutter speed is more important than FPS.

I have a camera used for LPR. The field of view is no larger than the size of a car. I run 8FPS and the vehicle is in and out of the frame in less than a half second. I catch every one with motion detection.

HA has been problematic in recent BI updates, so many people have shut it down completely. As Flintstone said, with the substreams, HA isn't needed anymore. Impacts CPU% maybe 1 or 2 percent. Previously before substreams, it could be a 40% or more swing.

So a 2nd generation is pretty old, but I do have to ask have you done EVERY optimization in the wiki? Direct-to-disc and substreams are two must do's to keep CPU low...

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[TVille]

What @wittaj said. I have 14 cameras, one LPR, several on Deep Stack, all running on an i7-6700 with 16 GB of ram. It runs around 20% CPU with all of that, and it is not optimized really. It works, I stopped tweaking it so I stop breaking things! It was running with only 8 GB of ram, and ran fine but was showing 80% memory utilization, so I got another stick for $35 or so. I bought this machine off eBay last year when my I7-3770 started failing.