Possible sff for BI?

NorthBendDave

Pulling my weight
May 27, 2021
127
159
Washington, USA
Getting tired of my Lorex NVR. Found a computer for sale local to me. Dell Optiplex 3040: i5-6500, 16g ram, 1T hard drive. Win 10 Pro, can go Win 11 for $10 more. It looks like this is acceptable according to the WIKI.
My question is, will my lorex cameras work with BI? I have 8 cameras (4mp) total (so far)
 
They should since Lorex is Dahua OEM and that computer is capable.

Blue Iris has a demo, so try it out on an existing computer and see if you like it. You can probably pull the cameras from the NVR right into Blue Iris by simply adding in the IP address of the NVR in the camera IP address of Blue Iris and putting in a user and password then down about halfway is a camera # and you just select the camera number to bring in. This would save you from needing to purchase POE switches.
 
I'd start off with Win 10 at the moment only because if you ever need internet explorer they excluded it in Win 11 at this time... during your setup/config of your new system, for a certain camera you may find you need it. I tried downloading IE 11 into win 11 and it downloaded, and said it installed, but clicking on it only brought forth Edge browser. SO for that reason, i'd go win 10 right now.
also if you havent pulled the trigger, the Elitedesk 800 SFF has 2-3.5" drive bays for 2 Surveillance drives VS. the 1 bay on the Optiplex. but i'm not above a FrankenDell....I stuffed a 2nd one into the optiplex 7010 sff by removing the CD-rom drive, they shrank the cd-dvd rom drive in your 3040 to a laptop style drive. so not much of a place for a 2nd 3.5" spinner.
 
Many SFF PC's and even some mini-towers are cramped and provide little or no options for a second or possibly a third drive of any form factor but many adapters exist to help out.

I've never used one but it looks like a great idea for $9 to put a 2.5" SSD where the 5.25" slimline DVD fits. Besides, you probably won't need an optical drive; we download most programs and apps these days, right?

Put Win 10, BI program and BI's "db" folder on the SSD and BI video clips on a surveillance-rated 3.5" HDD such as a WD Purple.

Highfine Universal 9.5mm SATA to SATA 2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Caddy Adapter Tray Enclosures for DELL HP Lenovo ThinkPad ACER Gateway ASUS Sony Samsung MSI Laptop

DVD-to-SSD.jpg
 
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Yeah those can be helpful. But the Optiplex has an onboard slot, for one of those fancy pants NVME SSD's, The 3040 I bought for my buddy from Nevada center for the Blind on Ebay, had a 1TB spinner that was Slow AF. it was like 8 years older than the system. So i got a 1TB NVME drive from Best Buy and imaged the spinner to the SSD. Night and Day difference, and frees up more space in the chassis.
But they only include a 2.5" drive bay and 1 3.5" drive bay for expansion bays.
 
Looking online it says space for 2 HDD and one optical drive. That adapter could hold my SSD, and room for 2 purple drives
 
I own one of the OptiPlex 3040 SFF I5-6500's, there is not a slot on the mother board for a NVME drive. Only option is to use a 2.5" SSD.
There is also no room for a second 3.5" hdd.
Stick with a EiliteDesk G3 or newer, it has room for an SSD and two 3.5" spinners.
It's relatively small, and very quiet and sips energy.
I would avoid Win 11 for now.
 
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They say 2 drives but they dont tell you what size.
 
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Oh i checked my orders. I bought the 3050 MT i5-6500. Has an onboard M.2 receptacle.
I don’t know how they can get away calling it a mini tower when it’s almost as small as a small form factor. Just fatter. theres your 3040 Mobo, She's only showing 2 SATA? wows-l1600.jpg
 
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3050 SFF and MT boards show 1 M.2 slot. on ebay. My Sumtimers is showing, excuse me while i go out and water the dog, and walk the lawn.
 
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My everyday computer is an i5-7700K. can't really justify a faster comp for my security cams. That HP G3 is very interesting though.