Help with Blue Iris System Spec/Build

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night0wl
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2019 7:54 pm

Help with Blue Iris System Spec/Build

Post by night0wl »

Hi All,

I am building a Blue Iris based system for a retail store that needs a security system. There's going to be 30-35 POE IP Cameras. They want 4k 8MP at as many frames per second as possible as this is likely to be in a high theft area. Originally, I was looking at the hardware recommendation site and going to source an I7 or I9 based system along with a 10 Gb subnetwork (small 5 port switch) that would attach to a Synology 8 bay NAS in Raid 1+0 mode with 8, 10 TB hard drives for a total of 40 TB of storage. The goal is to keep video for as long as possible (ideally 30 days) in order to identify issues and get law enforcement involved when needed.

However, some feedback on other forums said I should probably be better served with a self contained system. I came across a good deal on a Rosewill 12 hotswap bay case in the interim ($100 on Newegg!!). So now I'm here building this system. I need some help choosing hardware and setting up specifications. So some questions...and I intend to keep this thread going from speccing to sourcing to building with pictures.

1 - What CPU to use? Dual Xeon, or Single i9 or i7? I'm leaning to wards dual Xeon, *IF* Blue Iris can benefit from this. Does Blue Iris benefit more sockets, cores, threads, or on-board cache? I will have 30+ high resolution cameras, so I want a system that can handle the load as well as display the console with real time view on a 4k TV in the managers' office.

2 - Would the system benefit from NVIDIA graphics card? Which one? Or should I rely on onboard graphics? I need to drive output to a 4k 50-60" tv in the managers office...likley along with a remote KVM so that they can control the head box from the office rather than the IT room

3 - As mentioned earlier, I have a Rosewill 12 bay hotswap case ordered. 1 of the bays will be for the OS drive of the system and likely SSD. A second drive will also be SSD for the Blue Iris database. That means 10 bays are available for the storage of video output. Any advice on this configuration?

4 - For the video storage, Im thinking of RAID 1+0 (aka RAID 10) with 8, 10 TB drives. I may have 2 extra drives as cold stand-bys in case of drive failure. Or would it be better to have 10, 10 TB drives for 50 TB of storage and not worry about the cold stand bys. Just order a disk or two as spares or just replace when drives fail?

5 - Compound question...should I find a motherboard with an onboard RAID controller and a *LOT* of SATA ports? Or get a dedicated RAID controller? Or should I get a HBA card/dumb disk controller and use onboard raid of the motherboard?

6 - Any recommended motherboards for CPU and RAID configuration ?

Thanks all. Looking forward to this project. Will share more details as we go along this journey!
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