Choosing hardware for BI: is this PC okay?

Moonville

Moonville

Young grasshopper
Aug 9, 2021
56
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Ohio
I plan on having five cameras possibly expanding to eight. I've tried to understand as much as I can from the page Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris and I found this PC on eBay for $130 + shipping:

Dell OptiPlex 3020, Windows 10 Pro
Processor - i5-4590 (3.30 Ghz)
Graphics – Intel® HD Graphics 4600
Memory – 8 GB
Hard drive - 1 TB HDD

The i5-4590 does have Quick Sync according to the seller and the Intel site.

Is this an okay choice OR am I missing something OR should I go for something a little better?
optiplex_specs_ss.jpg
 
As long as you follow the optimizations in the wiki and do EVERY one of them, you can make a lesser (cheaper) machine very capable.

A member here was running 50 cameras on a 4th generation at 30% CPU. That is much more than your proposed 8 cameras LOL.

If you got the money for a 6th or 10th gen, the go for it, but you can get by with an older processor as well as long as you recognize that there are some limitations.

My 4th gen i7 hums along with BI at sub 15% with way more cameras than you are proposing.

You can also check out this site that pulls anonymous BI computer data so that you can compare computers. It is an interesting chart because you can tell which ones have done the optimizations. Do a search by CPU 45900 for example and you will see many people running 30 plus cameras at sub 15% CPU, while others have a few cameras and are over 40%.

Blue Iris Performance Stats for different computers

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...
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Thank you, wittaj. For the purpose of deciding which machine to buy, does it make any difference that I'll be accessing it remotely and the internet connection at its location is slow?
 
Read the wiki.
I run 16 cameras on an I7-4790 with 16 GB, I have a 120 GB SSD for the C drive, a wd 4TB purple drive for video. It runs at about 20% cpu. But I am not runnig deepstack. I would recommend that you add an SSD and a dedicated video recording drive to your system


If you can afford it go to a 6th generation CPU.
 
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I've read the Wiki multiple times and I will go back and read it again (probably multiple times) - I'm just slow comprehending this stuff. I do try to do my homework so 1) I don't create unnecessary threads/posts; 2) so I don't bother y'all any more than necessary and; 3) so I actually have a better chance at learning it.

I would recommend that you add an SSD and a dedicated video recording drive to your system
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In following your suggestion, does it make sense that I shop for a PC already with an SSD (then add the purple)? My impression is it's unlikely that a used unit would have a purple drive (or equivalent)?
 
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I believe that most people would add the equipment. You may be able to get one with an SSD, but not likely. I add the SSD and purple drive to my system after I got it. My system came with a 1tb drive, it went into the trash.

I started with a clean windows install
 
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Depending on the number of cams and the level on which you intend to use deepstack AI, it may not be sufficient. Also consider that you wont be able to upgrade to W11 on that machine - there will be some workarounds but who knows what MS may do with it in the future. Consider a machine with an i5-8500.
 
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I'm glad I went with that recommendation Fenderman....I feel pretty good about the i5-8500 now that the parameters for W11 have been put out.
 
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Of course the thing is so stable now I'd hate to fool with an OS upgrade unless pushed by a requirement.
 
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Moonville said:
I plan on having five cameras possibly expanding to eight. I've tried to understand as much as I can from the page Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris and I found this PC on eBay for $130 + shipping:

Dell OptiPlex 3020, Windows 10 Pro
Processor - i5-4590 (3.30 Ghz)
Graphics – Intel® HD Graphics 4600
Memory – 8 GB
Hard drive - 1 TB HDD

The i5-4590 does have Quick Sync according to the seller and the Intel site.

Is this an okay choice OR am I missing something OR should I go for something a little better?
Click to expand...
I have a HP I5-4590 currently running BI, with 7 cameras, 5 cameras are using the sub-stream technique (as mentioned in the wiki) and 2 do not have sub-streams. Currently, my system runs at about 55%, with BI using 40% of CPU.

I plan on replacing the ones without sub-streams and will be adding 3 more Dahua T5442 when it gets colder and have time to run more CAT6 cabling. Also plan to upgrade to a better system, as I' guessing this would push the CPU to 80%+.

If you can get a better/newer CPU at a price you can afford, I would recommend that for future expansion, as you will likely get addicted and add more cams :).
 
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If I don't care about Win11 then is 6th generation sufficient?

I realize Deepstack plays into this. How much deepstacking would be required for cameras that will be aimed at entrance doors, a driveway, and very little activity?
 
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Moonville said:
If I don't care about Win11 then is 6th generation sufficient?

I realize Deepstack plays into this. How much deepstacking would be required for cameras that will be aimed at entrance doors, a driveway, and very little activity?
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You don't need DeepStack at all. Up until March, BI didn't even have it integrated. You can still knock a lot of false triggers out just with the motion detection capabilities of BI. DeepStack simply adds an additional layer of analysis.

If you don't have a lot of motion going on, you could probably still do DeepStack on the 4th gen. DeepStack is great, but it isn't a requirement. Add a cheap GPU in it and you can offload DeepStack to it as well to make the 4th gen even more capable.

If you purchase cameras with AI in them, then you can probably get by with out DeepStack at all.

Who uses Dahua AI capable cameras? Reliable AI for triggering events? Pro's/con's?

It has come to my attention that certain Dahua cameras come with built in AI that distinguishes between human & cars. I was unaware of this. Well, always saw the AI word used in the reviews but never really thought about it because I thought it was a Dahua NVR integration only. I am currently...
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prepare to pay more for a decent GPU than the 6th gen PC - try avoiding a Small Form Factor PC if you dont want to be limited to a low profile nvidia GPU
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I was under the impression that I don't need a GPU according to Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris - unless I additional display outputs or BI requires too much CPU time to draw live video to the screen.
For most users, a dedicated graphics card will provide no meaningful benefit to Blue Iris, and will only serve to consume additional electricity. Onboard Intel graphics are more than enough. In fact, it can sometimes be complicated getting Quick Sync hardware acceleration to work if you have installed a dedicated graphics card.
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