Any Nuc users?

Tro

Young grasshopper
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Brisbane Australia
Hi all,
Are there any nuc users here?
I am currently trying BI and it's evident I need a stand-alone.
I'm wondering about the nuc, from what I've read an i5 is probably minimum
I have read that some 5th gen i3's are better than the gen1 i5
So any advise would be greatly appreciated
Space is not an issue

My set-up:
4 older foscams wired
2 new foscams HD wired
HP 36L server (running open Indiana)

I have no reason to upgrade the server, I will not be upgrading cameras for 2-3 years at least!

Tro
 

alphawave7

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
573
Reaction score
94
Last edited by a moderator:
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.

SyconsciousAu

Getting comfortable
Joined
Sep 13, 2015
Messages
872
Reaction score
825
I ran five 5pm cams at 8fps and then later at 3mp and 15 fps without a problem on an I3-2120 (3.3Ghz) with 8 Gig of Ram running BI. I added another three 3mp cameras at which point it started working a bit hard during some operations. I dropped in an I7 at that point and it is still going strong. As long as you are recording direct to disc, and not doing too many MP / fps it can be done on an I3. Keep in mind though that the latest 5th generation NUC I3 is a very low power chip which benches lower than my older 2nd gen I3. The I7 NUC chip is comparible in performance

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2467&cmp[]=1472&cmp[]=2502

Remember with the NUC you are limited to one 2.5 HDD/SSD and one M2, which limits your drive choices. You ram choices are also more limited.

I would be considering building a micro atx board based 5 gen I3 system. Sure it isn't as small and pretty as the NUC but you will get a lot more options for the money and you can upgrade easily.
 

bigjezza

n3wb
Joined
Aug 15, 2014
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
I'm in Australia too! I'm i3 nuc, the i3 4010u version. 4GB ram.
I've got 4 hikvision cams, 2x 1080p25fps and 2X 2048x1536p20fps

It hums along in Milestone XProtect essential at about 30% cpu usage on default motion settings. That's recording. Trying to view the 4 streams on the NUC pegs the CPU to 100% and it isn't smooth. As a simple recording server it works great. My main reason for buying milestone after I purchased blue iris was the client software with Milestone. I can run the client on any/all PCs, ipads, etc in the house and see whats happeneing. On slower gear it stuggles with the 4x streams (100% cpu), but on faster PCs its great. I do miss the different profiles Blueiris allowed, though.


My drives are connected by 2 USB3 dual drive docks. I have 4x3 tb drives in 2 separate windows storage spaces, which pools the drives together. Client backups go onto 3, and milestone goes onto the 4th disk. It seems to work well enough, but it is noticibly slower than my old server, that was an i7 860 with the hard disks connected via sata.

However, when Windows Server rejigs the backups once a week, milestone drops frames. I want to try putting the recording disk in a different dock.

My NUC has been running Server 2012 - with these docks it just works. I've tried all sorts of usb docks over the years, and these particular ones are good - they don't drop out. Astone USB3 dock with clone or something they're called, from MSY.

My old i7 was drawing about 130w just sitting there. This setup is about 35w. The main benefit was runtime on the UPS. It now goes over an hour with POE switch, modem/router etc. Plus its a lot quieter.

Have you looked at the newer HP micro servers? I'm tempted to get the g1610 gen 8 and drop the xeon in it :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:

jasauders

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Sep 26, 2015
Messages
214
Reaction score
56
I would be considering building a micro atx board based 5 gen I3 system. Sure it isn't as small and pretty as the NUC but you will get a lot more options for the money and you can upgrade easily.
Something in between the NUC and your Micro ATX suggestion would be Mini ITX. I've long since dreamed about building a small NVR out of something like this. The drive options for a box this size combined with the fact it'll run on a regular ATX power supply is very attractive to me.

3 x 3.5" HDD, or 2 x 3.5" HDD + 2 x SSD, or 1 x 3.5" HDD + 3 x SSD, or 4 x SSD

Just a thought.
 

digger11

Getting comfortable
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
370
Reaction score
377
Something in between the NUC and your Micro ATX suggestion would be Mini ITX. I've long since dreamed about building a small NVR out of something like this. The drive options for a box this size combined with the fact it'll run on a regular ATX power supply is very attractive to me.

3 x 3.5" HDD, or 2 x 3.5" HDD + 2 x SSD, or 1 x 3.5" HDD + 3 x SSD, or 4 x SSD

Just a thought.
A couple of years ago I built a combined Blue Iris/Emby server/HTPC in the Cooler Master Elite 130 chassis.
ASRock Z97M-ITX
Core i5-4690K, 8gb RAM
Cooler Master Seidon 120V liquid cooler
256gb SSD boot disk, 3TB and 4TB drives for storage.

It seems more than adequate for the 5x1080p, 2x720p and one crappy Foscam camera I have on it. Sits at ~ 27% CPU with all cameras recording 24x7, and I'm not even using hardware acceleration because I have BI running as a service on Win7 x64.
 

Tro

Young grasshopper
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Brisbane Australia
I'm in Australia too! I'm i3 nuc, the i3 4010u version. 4GB ram.
I've got 4 hikvision cams, 2x 1080p25fps and 2X 2048x1536p20fps

It hums along in Milestone XProtect essential at about 30% cpu usage on default motion settings. That's recording. Trying to view the 4 streams on the NUC pegs the CPU to 100% and it isn't smooth. As a simple recording server it works great. My main reason for buying milestone after I purchased blue iris was the client software with Milestone. I can run the client on any/all PCs, ipads, etc in the house and see whats happeneing. On slower gear it stuggles with the 4x streams (100% cpu), but on faster PCs its great. I do miss the different profiles Blueiris allowed, though.


My drives are connected by 2 USB3 dual drive docks. I have 4x3 tb drives in 2 separate windows storage spaces, which pools the drives together. Client backups go onto 3, and milestone goes onto the 4th disk. It seems to work well enough, but it is noticibly slower than my old server, that was an i7 860 with the hard disks connected via sata.

However, when Windows Server rejigs the backups once a week, milestone drops frames. I want to try putting the recording disk in a different dock.

My NUC has been running Server 2012 - with these docks it just works. I've tried all sorts of usb docks over the years, and these particular ones are good - they don't drop out. Astone USB3 dock with clone or something they're called, from MSY.

My old i7 was drawing about 130w just sitting there. This setup is about 35w. The main benefit was runtime on the UPS. It now goes over an hour with POE switch, modem/router etc. Plus its a lot quieter.

Have you looked at the newer HP micro servers? I'm tempted to get the g1610 gen 8 and drop the xeon in it :)
Brissy here!

I have done more research and ended up getting a second hand i5 desktop off eBay for a little under $200
with my 36L as the file server, runs fairly smooth!

The new HP servers would probably struggle somewhat and no benefit at additional cost!

Tro
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,908
Reaction score
21,295
Brissy here!

I have done more research and ended up getting a second hand i5 desktop off eBay for a little under $200
with my 36L as the file server, runs fairly smooth!

The new HP servers would probably struggle somewhat and no benefit at additional cost!

Tro
Dont buy first generation i5 systems...they are not efficient and dont have quicksync..
 
Top