Bi questions

[David Andrews]

I had bi4 a while ago and then made the mistake of changing it for a swann system and NVR.

I'm now thinking of coming back.
Couple of questions.
If I wanted to output to my hd TV would I need to keep it maximised on my pc all the time? Also would that increase energy usage? I moved away from bi before due to the amount the pc was using. I'm in the UK and energy prices have since doubled in the past year so I'm very keen to keep energy costs down.
I'm thinking of a Dell micro pc or an i7 12th gen laptop I have spare.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Micro PCs and laptops will not run BI properly Their processor throttle with load and BI can load them quite a bit. A used business class i5 or i7, 8th generation, with enough room and connections for a few hard drives is the best bet. If you use sub streams energy usage will be low, depending on the number of cameras.

If you HD TV has a built in browser or is you can install a third party browser, like Chrome, Brave, etc, you can access the BI machine with minimal impact using UI3. UI3 is the built-in web interface of Blue Iris and quite light on resources.

 

[David Andrews]

Thanks for your reply. I have an i3 laptop 12th gen which has been offered to me at a reasonable price. Would this be suitable for a 6 cam system operating 8mp colour vu cams? Or am I better off buying an older i7 system? Thanks again.

 

[sebastiantombs]

As I said, the processors in laptops and micro PCs are designed to limit themselves as they heat up from increasing loads. The generation of the processor has nothing to do with that, it is how laptops are built to run without burning themselves up. A used business class machine can be had for ~$300 USD to put it into perspective for you.

Have a read of these two guides from the WiKi.

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris

Buy refurbished. Don't build or buy new. The most cost-effective Blue Iris computers are refurbished business-class systems such as "HP EliteDesk" and "Dell OptiPlex". You can usually get a good deal by searching [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']Ebay[/URL] for specific CPU model numbers, and...

ipcamtalk.com

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

 

[Holbs]

I actually ran Blue Iris on a i7-4770 SFF that was not the full blown 4770 (was it..i ? r? the lower wattage CPU made for SFF mother boards). It was a bare bones system with 8gigs of who knows what speed/manufacturer RAM. My CPU hovered around 40% with 12-16 cameras. That was before all the glory of using substreams. I mean...it did WORK though it was no powerhouse. It COULD be an alternative to a full fledged computer. Of course, you did not mention how many cameras you run either. And a SFF computer uses 2.5" hard drives. I do not think any fit 3.5" HD.
In essence, I'd say better performance with a business class system than as SFF or USFF. But folks in Europe have to keep watts & electricity in mind for the next year. A SFF (unsure of performace of USFF) may work as long as not many cameras and not expecting the performace of the bigger brother CPU's while understanding of SFF/USFF limitations.

 

[Flintstone61]

When is somebody going to do a PC build with a USFF and post an honest look at it's capability/limitation as a BI server.....That'd be a start.....
We'd have a point of reference.....

 

[Flintstone61]

Energy is getting more expensive, and efficiency is important, but currently a 3.5" surveillance drive doesn't fit a USFF.....so your looking at trying SSD's

 

[Flintstone61]

$349 for a storage drive if you save $125 bucks for a year in electricity but spend $100-125 more for a drive, i guess almost a wash....unless that SSD lasts 2-3 years...

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