laptop for temporary use?

F

farnk

Getting the hang of it
Dec 31, 2018
132
10
New York
Hi,
I know the forum states to you PC with BI. But I would like to use a laptop. This is for temporary use only and I will at most use 2-3 cameras on it. I will of course have an external drive to save the videos to.

I want to use a laptop for temporary use because when I am done, I can use the laptop. But if I use a desktop, it will be put in the closet. It isn't as mobile.

Anyone using a laptop for their system? Anyone recommend what type of laptop to use?
 
If you want to just trial BI then I can’t see why you couldn’t use a laptop but even with the same processor don’t expect it to perform at the same level as a desktop.

I’m not an expert in specs but I’m testing BI on an i5-2600 desktop, a very low spec and old generation CPU but with 2 cameras it seems to idle at around 16%.
 
I used a laptop for the first year, the guides are there to get you the right computer on the first try, but I had a laptop just sitting so I put it to work.

The main problems I experienced was the laptop only had one network port (I split my camera network so had to get a USB network adapter), and the laptop lacks space for a proper high capacity drive (which I installed a temporary eSata external drive enclosure with 4TB).

I had no problems with that laptop over the course of the year I used it. If you already have a laptop, and just want to learn Blue Iris, I think its a plenty fine starting point.

It just limits your long term options, laptops are generally more expensive (so you will never get a recommendation to buy one over a mass produced desktop), they have not enough space for disk storage, they usually have underpowered processors (to increase battery life and reduce heat), and the failure of any one thing on a laptop board pretty much requires replacing the whole board to fix (big $$$).

Now I am using a repurposed gaming hardware (CPU i7-2600k) I already had, and I still would have saved money if I just bought as per wiki!
 
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crw030 said:
I used a laptop for the first year, the guides are there to get you the right computer on the first try, but I had a laptop just sitting so I put it to work.

The main problems I experienced was the laptop only had one network port (I split my camera network so had to get a USB network adapter), and the laptop lacks space for a proper high capacity drive (which I installed a temporary eSata external drive enclosure with 4TB).

I had no problems with that laptop over the course of the year I used it. If you already have a laptop, and just want to learn Blue Iris, I think its a plenty fine starting point.

It just limits your long term options, laptops are generally more expensive (so you will never get a recommendation to buy one over a mass produced desktop), they have not enough space for disk storage, they usually have underpowered processors (to increase battery life and reduce heat), and the failure of any one thing on a laptop board pretty much requires replacing the whole board to fix (big $$$).

Now I am using a repurposed gaming hardware (CPU i7-2600k) I already had, and I still would have saved money if I just bought as per wiki!
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Thanks. I have BI already on a PC per wiki. With my PC I have a router and externa HD. So having those if I have a laptop would not be new to me. Thanks. I will now purchase a laptop, newer gen i7.
 
farnk said:
Thanks. I have BI already on a PC per wiki. With my PC I have a router and externa HD. So having those if I have a laptop would not be new to me. Thanks. I will now purchase a laptop, newer gen i7.
Click to expand...
why would you purchase a laptop for this task, when a 100 dollar desktop will do a better job? Resell it or toss it in the trash when you are done.
 
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A laptop is not designed to run 24/7. You may have heat problems.

I killed a laptop running pipeline modeling software, the expected runtime of the model was in the neighborhood for thee weeks, the lap top did not make it.
 
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farnk said:
Thanks. I have BI already on a PC per wiki. With my PC I have a router and externa HD. So having those if I have a laptop would not be new to me. Thanks. I will now purchase a laptop, newer gen i7.
Click to expand...
If you already have BI on a PC (or even if you didn’t) no one (including myself) would RECOMMEND you BUY a laptop for this task. I misunderstood your question, assuming you had a laptop and wanted to get started with BI. Buy a desktop, it will be cheaper, it will easily run 24x7, it will hold more hard drives, it will have better cooling options, pretty much everything a laptop is good at (portability, compact size) is not beneficial for the BI usage scenario.
 
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