Recs for a 1u rackmount 16 or 32 channel Blue Iris box?

[Mike Voss]

I am looking for recommendations for a 1U rackmount PC that has made a good 16 or 32 channel BI server.
Would like load with all 16 or 32 cameras running and console logged in to be under 40% max. Prefer recs from people who have actually built and tested the specific server and how exactly it was configured. Need to buy soon! Oh and I'm new here so if there is a lot of info on this somewhere, please feel free to point me in the right direction. Thanks - Mike

 

[nayr]

Why 1U? Are you short on space? 1U's tend to be loud as fuck, they have tiny fans running at like 10k rpm.. I'd suggest a generic 4U chassis, its basically a mid-tower in a rack mount and you can load it up with off the shelf desktop hardware.

 

[Mike Voss]

It actually could be more than 1U, but smaller rack footprint generally is better.

 

[nayr]

only if your paying per U in a datacenter, I dont think anyone will tolerate a 1U server running in a residential environment.. you ever heard a 1U server?

 

[Mike Voss]

I get it - don't wanna get bogged down on this aspect - it's a DC environment so noise not really a concern.

 

[nayr]

the hard part is going to be finding a non-xeon server with appropriate GFX support; what's the expected bitrate of all your cameras combined?

 

[Mike Voss]

It can be varied - it will be Amcrest 3MP models but not necessary to use full frame rate. I typically run 10-15 fps

 

[nayr]

Why buy rebranded Dahua 3MP's (All Amcrests are dahuas) when you can get 2MP Dahua Starlights for a better price?

For >128Mbps of video your best bet is going to be finding something w/the latest and fastest i7 cpu in it

 

[Mike Voss]

That I already know. Again, looking for recs from people with actual systems running, please keep to that and that only, thanks.

 

[nayr]

Well then you can sit here all by your self in silence then.. cuz nobody here is running that; and I just turned down a Gig to setup BlueIris on a bunch of 1U Xeon servers because the hardware was not capable of handling the nessicary loads w/out Gfx support and the idiots already bought the hardware without doing any research.

 

[Mike Voss]

I've already set up such systems successfully, looking for better options since newer HW is available since I last built one. Thanks for your input. If nobody here has responds, that's fine.

 

[yobigd20]

Well then you can sit here all by your self in silence then.. cuz nobody here is running that; and I just turned down a Gig to setup BlueIris on a bunch of 1U Xeon servers because the hardware was not capable of handling the nessicary loads w/out Gfx support and the idiots already bought the hardware without doing any research.

Which Xeon's were those? The supported non-Xeon integrated intel gpu cpus ones only help with encoding/decoding but I'd think and "decent" Xeon should be able to handle a lot of direct-to-disk. (I'm running dual XEON E5-2683 V3 and my BI vm CPU usage is practically negligible for 10 cams lol)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[nayr]

they were a bunch of cheap refurbs and the camera count was in the tripple digits, hence the multiple servers.. I wasnt signing anything promising any results with hardware I had absolutely no say in.. I know better than to step in the dump the previous guy took in the middle of the floor, because I could smell it the moment I walked in

 

[Mike Voss]

I ended up finding a great solution. I got a
Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 Tiny with Intel i7-6700T, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 2TB HDD
It screams, is smaller than most hardback books, quiet, easily sits on a rack shelf and is blazing fast with 25 cameras never breaking 30% cpu even with the console running and high frame rates and pre-record buffers on all cameras and no direct to disk writing nor tuning. I am sure I can get to 32+ cameras on it and still stay under 50% I've used similar Lenovo M series models for many things and they are VERY good machines.
Best possible solution for me. No noise, minimal rack footprint., blazing performance.

 

[cainrand]

What's the temperature like?
Only reason I shy away from compact is potential heat issues.

 

[fenderman]

I'd consider different software. I happen prefer a smaller form-factor also, I guess for different reasons than you. Everything looks better in a rack and I don't know why you dont see more consumer electronics in some sort of Xu formfactor (audio, video, etc).

For your config I would def seek out other software solutions than BI

Why? you do realize that folks choose blue iris because they dont want to spend 50-100 dollars PER camera licensing...

 

[ldasilva]

Thanks for updating... What is the memory usage with 25 cameras? could you have gotten by with 8mb

I like the form factor.

mix 23 cameras here 3.9gb ram

94Mbps incoming
12Mpbs outgoing

 

[Mike Voss]

Memory thus far has not broken 1.5GB Not sure if 8GB would have worked ok, but I suspect it would. Temp is so low I haven't even bothered to check it - those little boxes run cool and quiet. I'll shine a laser thermometer on it next time and let you know the temp.
IMHO BI is hard to beat software wise. $69.00 lifetime license with almost daily upgrades and excellent features/performance -really hard to beat.

 

[Mike Voss]

BTW with console logged out and I hit it from an IOS client CPU is at 14% !

 

[fenderman]

BTW with console logged out and I hit it from an IOS client CPU is at 14% !

what are the camera resolutions..