Building a new Blue Iris Server

[Video1]

My existing system dated from 2015 is now starting to act wonky. The NVR is not recording and the app that comes with it for my iPhone is kind of wonky to use. I have 14, 2MP ip cams around the house and a NVR. I already have multiple 32 port PPPoE switches in my media room closet.

I would like to add 2 to 4 more cameras around the property. In addition I would like to install a wide angle and LPR camera facing the street. So the total cameras will be up to 20. I already have a pair of plenum CAT6 and 12 volt power run to the front of the property for the LPR and wide angle cameras.

My goal is to build a reasonably priced (what's that right?), BI rack mount server that I can access remotely.

I know folks have purchased used computers for use as a BI server, but since I want this thing rack mounted and out of my way, I'd prefer to just build a new system.

My planned build:
1) Intel core i7-12700K overkill? It's $360
2) MOBO MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 LGA 1700 Intel Z690 SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard $190
3) Memory 32 GB DDR4 3600 $86
4) NVMe SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2 2280 1TB $140
5) HDD Seagate IronWolf Pro 16 TB $300 x2
6) PSU I already have
7) Case - CHENBRO RM42300-F 1.2 mm SGCC 4U Rackmount Server Case $197
Total = $1573

Questions:
1) Obviously this comes out to quite the pricey system. Is it way overkill for what I need? If so feel free to suggest something more reasonable.

2) Also, should I upgrade my existing 2MP cameras to something higher resolution? While the new 4k ip cams seem to offer more resolution the sensor is about the same size.

3) Is it possible to run Blue Iris concomitantly with Plex? If I add say a RTX 3080 GPU to this system, it could easily be a Plex server. Yes, I would need several more big capacity HDDs. I need a new HTPC for my theater anyways.

Here's the brochures of my existing cameras and NVR:

 

[sebastiantombs]

Given that your cameras have dual streams, a main and a sub stream, you can easily get by with far less for a PC to run Blue Iris. I was running a mix of 22, 2MP and 4MP, cameras on an i7-6700K with no problem at all, CPU at about 15% with no hardware acceleration. Even an i5 in the 8th generation range will work with no problem. There's no need to go overboard if the machine is just for BI. You can buy a used business class machine, Dell, HP, Lenovo, that will easily handle your cameras for less than the 12700 processor will cost. Just make sure it has space for 3-1/2" drives for video storage.

 

[bp2008]

I also have been running an i7-6700K for my main BI system for about 7 years, with between 20 and 26 cameras (currently 23). Blue Iris used to always be CPU-limited so I always had kind of an itch to upgrade, but that went away when Blue Iris finally added support for sub streams in 2020. That feature single-handedly reduces CPU requirements by about 6x (for 2MP cams) to 24x (for 8MP cams) which means it isn't hard to find a CPU anymore that can handle as many cameras as you can connect to it (up to the software-imposed limit of 64 cameras).

Plex and Blue Iris can both run together if you so desire. Plex can utilize hardware-accelerated video transcoding from a GPU if you have a paid Plex Pass, but transcoding is often not needed when playing video with Plex anyway (depends on how you use it). And Plex can also use Intel's Quick Sync feature from the CPU for this anyway so it doesn't really need a dedicated GPU at all, and certainly not a high-end one. I put a 1660 Super (about $135 on ebay) in my Plex box because my dad streams some H.265 stuff from my Plex into his web browser, and that needs transcoding.

An RTX 3080 graphics card is overkill. It might be helpful in some very heavy AI processing workloads, but you're not likely to encounter a situation where a 3080 will do what a cheaper card like a 1660 Super or a similarly-priced Quadro will not. From what I've read, if you really care about AI processing performance, you are probably better off running the AI server on linux anyway. I haven't messed with Blue Iris's AI integrations yet.

 

[The Automation Guy]

Questions:
1) Obviously this comes out to quite the pricey system. Is it way overkill for what I need? If so feel free to suggest something more reasonable.

2) Also, should I upgrade my existing 2MP cameras to something higher resolution? While the new 4k ip cams seem to offer more resolution the sensor is about the same size.

3) Is it possible to run Blue Iris concomitantly with Plex? If I add say a RTX 3080 GPU to this system, it could easily be a Plex server. Yes, I would need several more big capacity HDDs. I need a new HTPC for my theater anyways.

3 + 1) I'll start with question 3 because it has ramifications for question 1..... IMHO you should consider a BI machine like a hardware NVR - a unique hardware device with a single function - to record your CCTV feeds. Therefore it is best to run BlueIris on a separate machine. While I guess this could be a VM running on this mega-build, I think a better solution is to use more reasonable components and have two builds.... One of BI and one for Plex/ everything else you need. I say this because running a VM means an issue with your Plex machine could take down the BI machine. Personally I want to ensure my BI machine has the highest reliability/uptime as possible and that generally means running it on it's own hardware.

2) There are plenty of threads about this topic. But if you want decent low light performance out of your cameras, you really need to pay attention to the sensor size and don't use a sensor smaller than 1/2.8" with a 2mp camera, 1/1.8" with a 4mp camera, and 1/1.2" with a 4k camera. Sticking with this rule of thumb will ensure your cameras all have about the same low light performance.

 

[Video1]

3 + 1) I'll start with question 3 because it has ramifications for question 1..... IMHO you should consider a BI machine like a hardware NVR - a unique hardware device with a single function - to record your CCTV feeds. Therefore it is best to run BlueIris on a separate machine. While I guess this could be a VM running on this mega-build, I think a better solution is to use more reasonable components and have two builds.... One of BI and one for Plex/ everything else you need. I say this because running a VM means an issue with your Plex machine could take down the BI machine. Personally I want to ensure my BI machine has the highest reliability/uptime as possible and that generally means running it on it's own hardware.

2) There are plenty of threads about this topic. But if you want decent low light performance out of your cameras, you really need to pay attention to the sensor size and don't use a sensor smaller than 1/2.8" with a 2mp camera, 1/1.8" with a 4mp camera, and 1/1.2" with a 4k camera. Sticking with this rule of thumb will ensure your cameras all have about the same low light performance.

Yes, I'm coming to the conclusion that have both BI and my Plex server on the same machine is going to get complicated. I'm not thrilled with the idea of setting up VMs and integrating that into a Linux server. I guess I should concentrate on a much more reasonably priced, low power usage BI server.

Then I could build a separate Plex server with a good GPU. I may end up going with MadVR or JRiver Media Center, so I would need a somewhat more robust GPU. This is so that I can send out tone mapped video files to my JVC front projector. I have Nvidia Shield Pros as my Plex client already, but I want to experiment with tone mapping from my media files (I already have a Panasonic 4k player for tone mapping output from my 4k discs).

I will look at the plethora of posts on the best low light cameras. Thanks.

 

[Video1]

Given that your cameras have dual streams, a main and a sub stream, you can easily get by with far less for a PC to run Blue Iris. I was running a mix of 22, 2MP and 4MP, cameras on an i7-6700K with no problem at all, CPU at about 15% with no hardware acceleration. Even an i5 in the 8th generation range will work with no problem. There's no need to go overboard if the machine is just for BI. You can buy a used business class machine, Dell, HP, Lenovo, that will easily handle your cameras for less than the 12700 processor will cost. Just make sure it has space for 3-1/2" drives for video storage.

So something like this would be adequate?

Gaming PC HP Z240 computer i7 32GB DDR4 960GB SSD RTX2060 WIFI WIN10 | eBay

HP Z240 WORKSTATION. Drive Bays: 96 0GB SSD. Front Ports: 2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, 1 USB 2.0 Charging Data Port, 1 Headphone, and 1 Microphone. Slots: 1 PCIe Gen3 x16 slot, 1 PCIe Gen3 x4 slot /x16 connector, 1 PCIe Gen3 x4 slot/x4 connector, 1 PCIe Gen3 x1 slot, 1 PCI slot 32-bit (optional), 1 M.2...

www.ebay.com

 

[sebastiantombs]

Sure, that would work but keep in mind you will need to use sub streams to keep the CPU utilization low. It has plenty of memory and Win10/Pro/64. Should work fine. If it'll take an M2 drive, even better.

Look in the Wiki, in the blue bar at the top of the page, for tips on how to optimize the system as well as for selecting a system.

 

[Video1]

Sure, that would work but keep in mind you will need to use sub streams to keep the CPU utilization low. It has plenty of memory and Win10/Pro/64. Should work fine. If it'll take an M2 drive, even better.

Look in the Wiki, in the blue bar at the top of the page, for tips on how to optimize the system as well as for selecting a system.

The Wiki is great! It has so much useful info.

By the time I add a M2 drive and a larger HDD to the ebay system, it's about half the cost of a i5-12600K system with 32 GB DDR4 3600 RAM, 18 TB WD Purple drive, M2 Samsung SSD, and a rack mountable case. The new system would be much more powerful than the ebay i7-6700, but is it still overkill? I want to upgrade some of my 2MP 1/2.8" CMOS turret cams to something more sensitive and higher resolution for night time vision. I'll need more HDD capacity as well due to adding more cameras including a LPR.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I don't think an i7-6700 would be overkill at all. Also keep in mind that an i7 may not be upgradeable to Win11 should that become necessary in the future.

 

[Flintstone61]

i put a rack shelf in my rack and put the SFF pc on it, the hp elitedesk is bout 4U...

 

[Flintstone61]

heres a 2 year + old photo of when
i first started out with BI

 

[Flintstone61]

heres a shot with the HP

 

[CCTVCam]

I see you have a camera recording any person who touches the server!