My humble i5-4590 still humming along with 30+ cams:

bradner

bradner

Getting comfortable
Aug 15, 2019
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PNW
I see people posting about their i7-xxxx system bogging down with less than 10 cameras so I wanted to update my setup.

I have ~33 cams running on my BI system:
  • HP Elitedesk 800 G1 tower
  • i5-4590 @ 3.3GHz
  • 16GB ram
  • 12TB total purple drives for storage
  • 30+ total cams currently - 22 cams visible in screenshot below (+8+ hidden)
  • cams recording at 10-15 fps with audio
  • Recording 24/7 with nearly all cams using substream with mainstream on triggers and running Intel hardware acceleration
    • I've tried running HA both on and off and haven't conclusively seen if it helps or hurts my CPU utilization.
  • CPU generally between 40-50%
  • ~19,000 kB/s
  • ~170 MP/s
  • 3-5 Fire TV's running UI3 with 3 of the FireTV's running 24/7
Majority of my cams are 5442's with a couple of the 4k - 1/1.2" ones I recently added.

The thermal cam gets moved around a bit - currently showing the house front but will be moved to the back field soon.

I religiously use this guide to try to keep my CPU usage as low as possible as I've wondered if my older CPU could handle this many cams:

BI cams rezized.png
Screenshot (4).png
Screenshot (5).png
 
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Gotcha beat with cam numbers, 21 physical cameras and 18 clones for a total of 39 on an i7-6700K. CPU is around 20-30% during the day and 10-15% at night. About an even mix of 4MP and 2MP though. Through put is around 20000KB/s 200MP/s.
 
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Great thread - shows that older CPUs can perform just fine if people are using the optimization.

I bet if you didn't have 3 Fire TVs streaming it would be even lower! But your % it totally reasonable.


I have a 4th gen SFF I got off the refurb list of a business lease with over 30 cameras ranging from 2MP to 8MP, running OpenALPR for two cameras, the plate utility to log the plates, and DeepStack on 5 cameras, with most of the cameras running at 15FPS, but a few are down in the 10-12 range and one is at 20FPS. Recording 24/7 substream with mainstream on triggers and not running hardware acceleration.

I have optimized the system fully to the Wiki. At night it will sip in the single digits. In the daytime it is in the teens. It will jump with OpenALPR in the daytime.

I rebooted my machine last week and I leave this program running to monitor temps, CPU%, memory, etc. It shows what it is at now and the max it has seen. I wish it showed the min also, but oh well. I am remote desktop in at the moment and that adds a few percent, but you can see it is sitting in the single digits at night and had a max of 30ish% for the past week.

1679846083447.png



Here is my nighttime CPU%:

1681089536351.png
 
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sebastiantombs said:
Gotcha beat with cam numbers, 21 physical cameras and 18 clones for a total of 39 on an i7-6700K. CPU is around 20-30% during the day and 10-15% at night. About an even mix of 4MP and 2MP though. Through put is around 20000KB/s 200MP/s.
Click to expand...

:) I dabbled with clones a bit but I just ended up buying more cams.. LOL...39 cams... challenge accepted -when's Andy's next sale....
 
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I'm running DeepStack on about ten of the clones. The CPU will spike to 70-80% with multiple triggers but only hangs there for, maybe 20-30 seconds.

Edit: I should have mentioned DeepStack offloads onto a GTX970, a power hog, but it does the job well.
 
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fenderman said:
It should be noted that a more powerful system will be needed to run deepstack ai if you have a bunch of cameras triggering simultaneously
Click to expand...

I purposely haven't implemented Deepstack because of my underpowered system and lack of a dedicated GPU too.
 
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Hi, folks. Gonna just jump right in and ask if anyone has experience using one of the Dell SFF Micros -- specifically with respect to CPU temps? I'm considering a 3020 i5 quad-core version available locally for a modest BI installation with maybe a dozen cameras. I have the BI demo running on a Dual-Core E6500 w/4GB RAM with 3 Reolinks and 4 Wyze v3s (with their RTSP firmware) -- quite poorly, of course. The utra-small form factor of the Dell is attractive for my purposes, but can't help wondering where all the heat goes from one.

If the subject has been previously addressed and there's a thread on it, sorry for being to lazy too hunt for it. Lots of info to weed through, here.

TIA for any info / enlightenment.
 
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Yeah, don't use the micro. You don't have a surveillance drive bay. Just 1 SSD 2.5" bay.
Unless that's also been put on the motherboard. (m.2 SSD)
The Small Form Factor Dell Optiplex (SFF) will house 1-3.5" surveillance drive and a m.2 SSD or a 2.5" SSD. I have all of the Dell optiplex form factors sitting on the floor here.
But the Hp Elitedesk G4-800 SFF / Core i5-8500 is probably the best suited for the Job. ( My job anyway)
The Micro uses Laptop ram, and a Possibly a "Mobile" processor. Or a Thermally throttled Processor.
I would not recommend the Micro.
You're Welcome to try it and give a full report on your findings though.
 
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I have one of the i5 3040 Micros. Used it for a while when searching for a replacement after my old BI server died. Was before substreams were an option but didn't really work all that great. Repurposed it as a server for Home Assistant and various other utility uses. Works great for that.
 
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Thanks for the replies. The guy had two i5 3020s that were loaded feature/performance-wise for $70 each..., which is about my budget ceiling. Gone by the time I finished posting. Spending $400+. on a BI rig for a simple 8 camera setup isn't in the cards for me when TinyCam almost does what I need on a MiBox already.

The search will continue.

Thanks again.
 
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i7-4790 with 25 cams, ~14,500 kB/s & 464MP/s. CPU ~45%, goes up with console maximized or UI3 being used, of course.

FWIW, I've noticed that very often updating BI undoes all my 'hardware acceleration' settings and causes high CPU usage until I manually go thru all the cams and re-enable it. I have it set to default to Intel, but with al;most every update, almost all cams go back to 'none' (from 'default')... known issue? or just me?...
 
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Have you Monkeyed with the Global HA setting? Maybe that could save you from a Cam by Cam readjustment.
 
Screenshot 2022-05-01 141154.png
 
Since this thread popped up active today, I'm still in need of some advice on hardware as specifically relates to what will primarily be a live viewing system vs. a 24/7 recording setup. Am I correct in thinking my hardware requirements will be much higher for simply viewing several simultaneous live streams at a given frame rate / resolution than recording same? I guess I'm not quite getting where the sub-stream thing affects CPU performance -- reduced live stream quality for the sake of higher quality recording, or the other way around -- or both.

I also have a line on an OptiPlex 9020 SFF i5 4570 w/8GB DDR3 and a 500GB HDD. Asking price is $150, but the seller has reduced it twice in the last two weeks and seems pretty motivated. It would only be asked to handle 4 Wyze cam v3s and a couple Reolink 410s and an 811 at present -- probably another one or two 4mp units sooner than later.

Again, TIA for tips and enlightenment anyone cares to offer.
 
Flintstone61 said:
Have you Monkeyed with the Global HA setting? Maybe that could save you from a Cam by Cam readjustment.
Click to expand...

thanx, but yes, i have the global setting to use Intel, and that stays after upgrade, but each individual cam 'forgets' that its' set to use the default (Intel)...
 
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