x16 5MP Cams - i7-4790 Good Enough

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SushiMamma

n3wb
Dec 23, 2020
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USA
Hello, I am thinking of install 16 of these cams at my business:

Amazon.com : Amcrest 5MP UltraHD Outdoor Security IP Turret PoE Camera with Mic/Audio, 5-Megapixel, 98ft NightVision, 2.8mm Lens, IP67 Weatherproof, MicroSD Recording (256GB), White (IP5M-T1179EW-28MM) : Electronics

Amazon.com : Amcrest 5MP UltraHD Outdoor Security IP Turret PoE Camera with Mic/Audio, 5-Megapixel, 98ft NightVision, 2.8mm Lens, IP67 Weatherproof, MicroSD Recording (256GB), White (IP5M-T1179EW-28MM) : Electronics
www.amazon.com

I am planning to purchase this machine and install Win10 Pro and Blue Iris.

NeweggBusiness - 9siv1pyb9e0792

Shop NeweggBusiness.com for all your business tech needs! From workstations to servers, plus flexible payments & rewards—it's the perfect solution!
www.neweggbusiness.com www.neweggbusiness.com

Do you all think the i7-4790 is sufficient?

Also wondering what FPS is typical to record at. 10? 15?
Lastly, can I lower the resolution of the recording in BI or on the cameras, or am I stuck at 5MP?

Thanks for the help!
 
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The mini tower is over priced. Go with the same machine with the OS from EBAY. If you shop and do not rush you can get a good prices on a used Business class HP or Dell.

I also use an I7-4790 it runs a about 13 cameras mixed between 2mp-5mp at 15% CPU for 600 MP/S. I use substreams for motion detection. Sixteen 5mp cameras at 15 FPS is about 1200 MP/S. You will need to run the cameras a h.264 as the CPU does not support hardware acceleration for h.265. For your main stream i record at the resolution of the camera. If you want to lower the data rate lower the FPS.

I would recommend a minimum CPU of i7-6700 . With 16 GB memory , 120 GB SSD and an 8 TB wd purple drive. Get a bigger case not a SFF so you can add more drives if necessary.


Look at

Blue Iris Update Helper

Blue Iris Update Helper
biupdatehelper.hopto.org

most business machines can do A Windows 10 clean install "microsoft media creation tool"
 
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Thanks for the hardware recommendations. Will look into an i7-6700.
The PC I linked is a full tower. For the Optiplex, the "mini-tower" is the full size, bigger than the SFF (confusing!)

I found I can reduce the resolution of the cameras in their settings. Would I get better night vision if I dropped the res on my outdoor cams to let's say 2MP? Thoughts?
Thanks again.
 
Dropping resolution in the cameras won't really help. It's still a 4MP sensor and at most it'll reduce the file sizes but will sacrifice detail. Using the substreams, at the lowest available resolution, is what will save CPU utilization. I've got a mix of 15, 2MP and 4MP, running on an i7-6700K and utilization sits around 7% during the day and 3% at night. That's about 100 megapixels per second load.
 
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I have that camera, Amcrest sent them out free for reviews.. for $50 its fine, you get about $50 worth of quality out of it.. meaning it is really bad for night vision. There is no WDR on it so you will blow out either darks or whites at some point. But the image is pretty decent during the day for $50. Its plastic housing, which is fine as I dont suspect most people need a high impact vandal resistant dome camera for residential use. Its pretty straight forward to use. Its been running outdoors for several weeks in the rain and florida sun and never had a problem.

If you need quality low light and night vision images, do not use this camera though.
 
They're not THAT bad at night. Not as great as the 2MP Starlights or the newer 1/1.8 sensor 4MP cams but they're OK. Need to play with settings some but you can get a decent low-light image out of them. Clearly are better low-light cams but probably not for the same money.

If you do go with some of those, then pass on the 2.8mm. The 3.6mm is available for about the same cost and a better/more practical length.


And that's still too wide for most purposes. These may be OK for overview/wideview though. Go with other/better cams with a more narrow length or varifocal where needed. Hard to judge without knowing specifics but generally what most would want.

Edit to add: Promo code W44CKUSN still works to take $15 off of the price.
 
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The OP is not far off from my same current puzzling situation.

Am I understanding that you can get by with a lower level CPU as long as you use a low resolution subStream? If so, is the Main stream being recorded or is the Main Stream only recorded "once a motion/alarm event" is triggered?
 
The main stream is record continuously IF you are recording continuously. The sub stream can also be recorded continuously if you desire.
 
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I have 2 9020 Optiplex....I like the big tower. $230 dollars on ebay 3 years ago. but The i5 4790 CPU's i suspect are a bit underpowered for my needs with BI. I learned this after building up an optiplex 7010 - i7 3770s. It's running 12 Camera's in an Optiplex "DT" ( 1 size up from small form factor) It struggles a bit on some camera's with playback...freezes sometimes. I would go with a 6700 CPU. If you can, buy from ebay. You can get a machine with Win10 Pro already installed for about $250-300.
 
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FelixDKat said:
The OP is not far off from my same current puzzling situation.

Am I understanding that you can get by with a lower level CPU as long as you use a low resolution subStream? If so, is the Main stream being recorded or is the Main Stream only recorded "once a motion/alarm event" is triggered?
Click to expand...
It records mainstream in the background while displaying substream to your video monitor. My version 5 will display Substreams but it doenst say anything about recording it. Newer versions have substream recording in parallel with Main stream? i think. I'm getting by with i7-3770s. was great up to about 8 cameras. It's still ok, but it's slow to replay recorded video smoothly.
 
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Flintstone61 said:
I have 2 9020 Optiplex....I like the big tower. $230 dollars on ebay 3 years ago. but The i5 4790 CPU's i suspect are a bit underpowered for my needs with BI. I learned this after building up an optiplex 7010 - i7 3770s. It's running 12 Camera's in an Optiplex "DT" ( 1 size up from small form factor) It struggles a bit on some camera's with playback...freezes sometimes. I would go with a 6700 CPU. If you can, buy from ebay. You can get a machine with Win10 Pro already installed for about $250-300.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies!
For now I already had an Optiplex 9020 with -->"4th Generation Intel Core Processor I7-4770 (Quad Core HT, 3 .4GHz Turbo, 8MB, w/ HD Graphi cs 4600)"

I have been picking up 8mp Hikvision cameras when I could find them cheap and am now ready to put it all together. I only need 7 or 8 cams. Worst case for now I would run a second system (I have 3 optiplexes) and upgrade the computer later.

As I understand it the worst part is 4th gen Intel Processors can't do h.265?
 
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FelixDKat said:
As I understand it the worst part is 4th gen Intel Processors can't do h.265?
Click to expand...
You can certainly use 265 video with that processor. The limitation is not being able to use intel hardware acceleration with 265 - for that you need 6th gen and up.
If you are paying anywhere near 326 for that old piece of junk you are a sucker. For that money you can have an almost new much more powerful i5-8500 system or a i7-6700 (less powerful than an i5-8500) for about 250.
 
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fenderman said:
You can certainly use 265 video with that processor. The limitation is not being able to use intel hardware acceleration with 265 - for that you need 6th gen and up.
If you are paying anywhere near 326 for that old piece of junk you are a sucker. For that money you can have an almost new much more powerful i5-8500 system or a i7-6700 (less powerful than an i5-8500) for about 250.
Click to expand...
Question" what or where is the decoding/encoding happening if I select h265 on a 3/4th gen intel cpu?
 
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So lets see....if I click on that bad boy,,, i could conceivably bring the old optiplex 7010 home and start a BI system and begin the KILL OFF of the Ignoramusly purchased Night Howl POS.
 
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fenderman said:
You can certainly use 265 video with that processor. The limitation is not being able to use intel hardware acceleration with 265 - for that you need 6th gen and up.
If you are paying anywhere near 326 for that old piece of junk you are a sucker. For that money you can have an almost new much more powerful i5-8500 system or a i7-6700 (less powerful than an i5-8500) for about 250.
Click to expand...

$50
 
I cant speak for whether it will be sufficient but if you decide you want more power building might not be a bad option. I was looking at the optiplexes and elitedesks recommended here and at ~$200 for the 4790/i5-6500 they are a good deal but if you are wanting to step up to a 6700 or 8500 you are looking at spending over $300 on a used workstation at current ebay prices. I was looking at doing that but for $400 before tax ($60 or which was a nvme ssd) I've got the components for a SFF ITX build with a i5-10400 which gives me a lot more processing power and a lot more modularity and room for more storage. I went used on the ram and psu but everything else was new.
 
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