Best CPU for Blue Iris for lowest electricity consumption?

[BigKingy]

Hi! (newbie here so be gentle!),

Longtime lurker but finally signed up as a user.

I have been playing around with Blue Iris for a while, and now I want to sort some dedicated hardware for it. I was considering a brand new HP Mini G5 or small form factor (EliteDesk) type system with a top of the range, 10th generation i7 or i9 CPU.

But one of the major considerations for me is to try and have the lowest electricity/power usage as much as possible, as I want to attempt to try and run this rig for some of the year off a solar/battery setup. So the less wattage use the better!

Obviously I understand the considerations of how many cameras, what Megapixel they are, POE power, how Blue Iris is configured etc. all make a huge impact, but just looking at the CPU options specifically, am I better off with a top spec 10th Generation Intel i9, even though it will probably mostly be just over 10-15% CPU usage at the majority of the time? Or would a power-limited type CPU such as the Intel i7-10700T be doing the same job but with a lower watts consumption?

Or would it be better with an i5 or lower?

If the i9 only sips electricity at lower CPU usage, then having the headroom for much more CPU grunt if / when needed for any other applications would be ace!

But if it is going to end up being a little greedy (even just 5-10 watts more at idle) than another CPU then that might make a difference.

Any advice on this would be most appreciated!

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Flintstone61]

Have you googled/looked at processor wattage when you search for a specific processor? For example. If you google search “intel i5 8500” you’ll see a hit like this. Which gives data on wattage use. And die size etc....

Product Specifications

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

 

[holiday]

interesting!

Are you connecting BI only or everything inc. cameras/switch / poe to solar ?
Without going into your BI / camera setup.. think about the solar setup first.

What panels you are using and how many and how many watts each?
What type of battery and capacity?
Off the grid or connected to grid ?

Don't forget the POE/Camera/Switches also run 24/7 and sucks alot of power depending on the number of cameras you have.

 

[VorlonFrog]

Generally, you want an appreciable amount of "headroom" where the system can accommodate more cameras over time. Besides, who wants to have to upgrade less than a year after buying something? The trick would be balancing the desire for "the best of the best" against "how long will configuration X provide acceptable performance". Many of us here prefer the latter.

 

[D0T-C0M]

I'm running HP small form factor without a monitor with an i5-6500 intel cpu and with 4 cameras streams its drawing 30watts 90% of the time with the occasional bump to 40w when it records an event. The CPU system load is about 10-15%. Each camera draws about 5W-6W. I'm under 65W total

 

[Holbs]

I do not see a need to have the latest/greatest CPU with just 4 cameras. You will want a intel CPU with a "T" at the end for the "power optimized lifestyle" such as i5-9700T with the use of just 35w as compared to the desktop version of 90+ watts. Never dabbled with the "U" ones for "mobile power saving" use. I think "T" is more available. Of course, the Intel Atom came in at under 10 watts
A Intel NUC would be your best bet.

 

[wittaj]

Not necessarily sure about how much of a concern the electric usage is for you, but a 4th generation CPU is more than sufficient. Consider a refurbished unit from ebay or Amazon or MicroCenter for example.

Many of these refurbished computers are business class computers that have come off lease. The one I bought I kid you not I could not tell that it was a refurbished unit - not a speck of dust or dents or scratches on it. It appeared to me like everything was replaced and I would assume just the motherboard with the intel processor is what was from the original unit. I went with the lowest end processor on the WIKI list as it was the cheapest and it runs my system fine. Could probably get going for $200 or so. A real NVR will cost more than that. A member here just last week found a refurbished 4th generation for less than $150USD that came with Win10 PRO, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB drive.

Another member here is running 50 cameras on a 4th generation in the 30% CPU range.

If you follow all the optimizations in the wiki, you can bring down usage quite a bit. My 4th generation averages about 40 watts.

Systems with a "T" suffix on the CPU (e.g. i5-6500T) are underpowered versions designed to fit in smaller cases and meet stricter energy-usage requirements. These are significantly less bang for your buck. You will find that performance will suffer as they will slow the CPU to meet energy requirements. Would you rather spend a few more bucks on electric and not miss an event, or save 2 bucks and miss an event because the CPU was maxing out.

 

[Holbs]

Not necessarily sure about how much of a concern the electric usage is for you, but a 4th generation CPU is more than sufficient. Consider a refurbished unit from ebay or Amazon or MicroCenter for example.

Many of these refurbished computers are business class computers that have come off lease. The one I bought I kid you not I could not tell that it was a refurbished unit - not a speck of dust or dents or scratches on it. It appeared to me like everything was replaced and I would assume just the motherboard with the intel processor is what was from the original unit. I went with the lowest end processor on the WIKI list as it was the cheapest and it runs my system fine. Could probably get going for $200 or so. A real NVR will cost more than that. A member here just last week found a refurbished 4th generation for less than $150USD that came with Win10 PRO, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB drive.

Another member here is running 50 cameras on a 4th generation in the 30% CPU range.

If you follow all the optimizations in the wiki, you can bring down usage quite a bit. My 4th generation averages about 40 watts.

Systems with a "T" suffix on the CPU (e.g. i5-6500T) are underpowered versions designed to fit in smaller cases and meet stricter energy-usage requirements. These are significantly less bang for your buck. You will find that performance will suffer as they will slow the CPU to meet energy requirements. Would you rather spend a few more bucks on electric and not miss an event, or save 2 bucks and miss an event because the CPU was maxing out.

remember...he is trying to run the entire system off solar panels

 

[D0T-C0M]

Just to help people understand why saving a mere 20W can save you hundreds in solar installation costs.

Its not very difficult Calculate the Watt-Hr usage in a 24 hour period. In my case I'll use 65W. So 65watt times 24 hours in a day = 1560Wh (Watt-hours) needed to run for a day. You'll need to size a battery bank about 3 times larger in order to run up to 3 days in times when the sun isn't out much. So let's say you decide 3 days is enough so you'll need a battery bank about with 4.7KWh capacity.

Now you have to decide what voltage bank you want, a 24v or 48v bank. Battery banks are sized in in AMP-hr so for a 24v battery bank you will need a four(4) 12v100Ahr. Two 12v batteries in series and in parallel with the other 2 series batteries. This will give you a 24v battery bank with a capacity of 24Vx200Ahr= 4800Watt-hr.

Now the solar part is going to vary from place to place depending on the available sun hours in your area. I live in the northern hemisphere so we get really short days in the winter. If you live in an area where you get more sun hours then adjust the numbers accordingly.

Typically you would select the worst case scenario which is the shortest day of the year dec21st for us in the northern hemisphere. I get about 4 sun hours in a day. So I would need at least 1560Whr/4 sun hours=390Watts of panels to recharge my batteries, but that is under ideal conditions. If you get 2 cloudy days and rain you might only get 50% out of your panels so I would use at least double the size of your panels.

Also In my calculations I am assuming you will use Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LiFePo) batteries which you can use 100% of its capacity but if you are using acid filled batteries you can only drain them to 50% without damaging them so you have to double the size of your battery bank to get the same capacity out as a LiFePo battery.

People tend to think because 65W is so small that is doesn;t matter if you run more or less but if you could get the load down to 40W from 65W your looking at a 40% reduction in my numbers and you'd save hundreds of dollars in the cost of your solar system.

Just quickly for 40Wx24hrs in a day = 960Wh
960Whr times 3 days capacity = 2880Wh
2880Wh/24V= 120Ah which is two 60ah batteries in series and in parallel with two 60Ah batteries in series or what we call a 2S2P arrangement.

You'd save a lot in just in the reduction in needed capacity but instead of buying 4 batteries you can buy two 12v 120Ah LiFePo batteries and series them.

Also factor in that you would save in a 40% reduction the number of solar panels

You also save a couple hundred bucks on a smaller charge controller and inverter alone.

So it may seem trivial to save 20Watts on the load but it really adds up in the long run.

 

[BigKingy]

Interesting responses everyone! You have all pretty much summed up my dilemma, getting the power consumption as low as possible (for the solar) whilst potentially having processing headroom for future CPU use.

So here's a potentially simpler question. Let's say you had 2 rigs, one with a power restricted T processor, like the Intel i7-10700T (or even a T i5) and another with a top spec i9......would one use more electricity than the other when compared on the same setup (i.e. same cameras, POE, BI settings etc). Would there be a noticeable watts difference just from the differences in CPU alone?

Or would the i9 drop it's power / watts usage right down (I assume modern power supplies are intelligent in some manner?) to almost match the power restricted CPU in actual electricity usage?

Or not?

Thoughts?