New Home Installation

[Sailboater410]

Hi everyone, new guy here. After trying out and deciding to send back my Unifi G3 with Unifi NVR, and after reading this forum, I've decided to go with a more flexible (I.e., non-proprietary) route using a PC and Blue Iris. I'm a Mechanical Engineer and not a Networking specialist, so learning a lot about networking. Enjoying this forum, lots of info and experience here, and I expect this is where I'll get all of my BI questions answered when the time comes.

Just picked up one of these from Newegg for $159: Lenovo ThinkCentre M82 Intel i5 Quad Core 3.2GHz 250GB HDD 4GB RAM DVD ROM Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit Desktop Computer. Didn't realize until too late that it's a Gen 3, so if this doesn't work for the security system we'll use it to replace aging desktops in the house. Prepared to buy a video card and more RAM if needed.

I want to keep the PC in our living area for access but locate an NAS remotely in a closet along with the noisy Unifi 16-port switch. I'll be running 8 IP cameras, some 1080p and some 4MP depending on location and requirements. All cams will be outdoors at this time. Unless something changes, I plan to record on motion only and monitoring via Android smartphone (Verizon Wireless/Samsung J7).

Questions: Do you see any potential issues with this PC/NAS arrangement? Any suggestions? Haven't purchased the NAS yet, any to avoid or any that are highly recommended for reliability?

Thank you!
Ron

 

[aristobrat]

I'm running a 3rd gen i7 and it's keeping up with five 2MP and one 3MP cameras (running at 20 FPS). 10-15% CPU average as long as nobody's RDP'ed into to. That adds 5-7% to the CPU. Since it's Gen3, it won't do H.265 hardware acceleration, which will add to the CPU load (if you chose to use H.265).

I don't think adding a video card will help with anything, BI uses the onboard Intel HD card to do hardware acceleration for H.264 streams. (if I understand everything correctly). The scenario for adding a video card I saw was in regard to if your have your BI system hooked up to a 4K monitor and it takes too long to refresh it.

Curious about NAS, too. I'd want to think that as long as your "New" folder is on the local HDD, you could set the "Stored" folder to be on your NAS and it'd just move the files over in the background. Hopefully someone with NAS experience can confirm that.

 

[Sailboater410]

Thanks guys, sounds like a video card won't be needed. I suppose the biggest need for video cards is in highly dynamic scene changes.... video games, etc. and this is not the case with most boring surveillance footage

Aristobrat, you mention "new folder" and "stored folder", I'm assuming I'll be running into these once I get into the BI software setup. Need to wait for the PC to arrive first.

I'm also getting the impression that memory (RAM) requirements aren't large either, and the process is to first write to local HDD then transfer later to an NAS or other storage device.

 

[DWW0311]

Thanks guys, sounds like a video card won't be needed. I suppose the biggest need for video cards is in highly dynamic scene changes.... video games, etc. and this is not the case with most boring surveillance footage

Aristobrat, you mention "new folder" and "stored folder", I'm assuming I'll be running into these once I get into the BI software setup. Need to wait for the PC to arrive first.

I'm also getting the impression that memory (RAM) requirements aren't large either, and the process is to first write to local HDD then transfer later to an NAS or other storage device.

You don't need a video card per se unless you just propose to interact with the PC locally via directly connected equipment. The onboard HD video GPU included in some processors can be utilized to speed up encoding for certain functions if it's present.

New and stored are simply storage locations - think of them as "current" and "archived". You can set them to whatever location you like, with the caveat that new should always be on a directly attached drive. Stored can simply be another folder on that drive, a different directly attached drive, or networked storage (note: ideally you'll want a fast network to utilize this option.)

I utilize a directly attached 4TB WD Purple as my "new" and a virtual drive on a 72TB NAS as my "stored". Both boxes (the BI box and the NAS server) are connected with bonded LACP gigabit connections through a Cisco 3560G.