BI Computer Purchase

[nickjohn35]

Getting ready to purchase a PC for BI. We will have 3 cameras and a doorbell camera. I’m between a

-Dell Optiplex 5060, i5-8th gen 8600, 16GB Ram, 500GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics. $170

-HP Elite Desk 800 G4, i5-8th gen 8500 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics.$150

I’ll be adding my own WD Purple Hard drive.

Thoughts/opinions/ help would be GREATLY appreciated as I’m still learning here!

[HeneryH]

Three cameras can run on the lightest of computers. A micro/mini/tiny would be my recommended route. Either of those you posted would be fine.

[nickjohn35]

Three cameras can run on the lightest of computers. A micro/mini/tiny would be my recommended route. Either of those you posted would be fine.

Ok cool. Not sure if it matters, but I forgot to mention I’ll be wanting to run CodeProjectAI as well.

[TimG]

CPAI will slow down any PC depending on the number of models and cameras you run. I would suggest trying it and adding a graphics card if you need it. Can those pc's take a graphics card like a GTX1650 ?

[wdthompson]

Will one of the mini pc's have space and be able to hold the Western Digital Purple drive?

[HeneryH]

Will one of the mini pc's have space and be able to hold the Western Digital Purple drive?

I doubt it. My mini only has a caddy with room for the smaller profile disks.

[IAmATeaf]

I personally prefer the HP as they tend to have more room inside making expansion a bit easier but always check to see how many 2.5” and 3.5” hdds it can accommodate and it that fits your needs.

[markoz52]

G'day,

Did you buy the HP G4 Elitedesk 800? I'm having problems with mine ... substream recording stutters / skipped / dropped frames.

Kind regards,

Mark

[HeneryH]

G'day,

Did you buy the HP G4 Elitedesk 800? I'm having problems with mine ... substream recording stutters / skipped / dropped frames.

Kind regards,

Mark

How many cameras and what are their streaming parameters?

[markoz52]

Two Cameras:
Name MPixels CODEC FPS/key Bitrate Sub FPS/key Sub Bitrate
Cam1 8.3/0.3 H265 15.06/1.00 812.4 kB/s 15.10/1.00 77.7 kB/s
Cam2 8.3/0.3 H265 15.10/1.00 797.6 kB/s 15.08/1.00" 76.5 kB/s

The fail for me is recording playback of the substream is the significant number of frames begin dropped to be useless.e mainstream alert recordings do not suffer from this problem. BI Console views of substreams (just 2 cameras) or single camera (mainstream) don't show any freezing etc. as observed by the cadence of the camera date and time overlays.

One could call them substream "Stutters" or "Freezes" of between 0.5 and 4 to 6 seconds observed as follows:

- Timeline stopping and starting (jumping) during forward or reverse playback (for single or multiple camera view)
- Playback speed / date & time box - time freezing and then jumping to a second or two, but also up to 4-6 seconds later
- Playback Camera indicated time (camera overlay) also freezing and jumping matching the BI playback time
- Clip exports to .mp4 also shows the same issues on playback

There is nothing special about the Elitedesk 800 G4 SFF PC:
* 16GB RAM, 500GB M.2 NVME SSD, 12TB Seagate SkyHawk AI Storage HDD
* Intel I210-T1 GbE NIC (for dedicated Camera LAN) [Motherbaord NIC for Internet / remote access]

The recording is H.265 direct to disk "Continuous sub + Triggered" plus "Record dual-streams if avaialble"
* No AI installed.
* CPU usage as per the console is typically 2% GPU 3% (or even 0% 2%)
* Receive buffer currently at 12MB. No change at 30MB
* Hardware decode is set to Intel+VPP, Any GPU, Also BVR checked
* Cameras: 2 x 4k Amcrest PoE units, 15 fps, key-frame rate is 1

Software:
* Windows 11 Pro with Blue Iris 5.9.0.7 plus a few others: Samsung NVM Express Driver, Samsung Magician, Firefox and CCleaner. Antivirus is Microsoft's Defender.
*The only s/w modifications have been to enable the NTP Time Server for the camera LAN (and the two required firewall rules).

I've run every HP BIOS included and USB (HP) bootable diagnostic I can find without fault. Userbench results are as follows:

UserBenchmarks: 18 April 2024
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700 - 90.2%
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 630 (Desktop Coffee Lake i5 i7) - 4.4% [This is "normal" for Intel UHD 630]
SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 500GB - 201.5%
HDD: Seaget SkyHawk AI 12TB - 67.2% (Read: 124MB/s, Write: 120MB/s, Mixed:93.8MB/s)
RAM: Samsung M378A1K43CB2-CTD 2x8GB - 67%
MBD: HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF HP 83E1

This HP PC uses the Intel Q370 chipset. I can't find any references to problems with this chipset - and it is the same chipset as used by many Dell (Optiplex) and Lenovo models which seem to be popular as BI servers.

I've tried substream resolutions of 640 x 480 (VGA) and 720 x 480 (D1) over a large range of bit rates without any improvement.

In desperation I moved the Boot M.2 SSD, the Storage HDD and the Intel GbE NIC to a borrowed PC: Asrock Z390 motherboard (i5 9600K, 32GB RAM). After an update / reboot to fix motherboard drivers etc. Blue Iris has run perfectly. All substream and mainstream playback appear to be faultless. The MP4 export also doesn't reveal any dropped frames / stutters / freezes.

I used to run BI on a Z68 motherboard based PC (i7 2600K, 16GB RAM, SATA boot SSD, NVS 310 graphics) with significant s/w bloat (full MS office Pro, Photoshop, Premier, Ominpage Ultimate, etc.) and didn't have this problem. Even running this "old" PC with BI simultaneously with the HP Elitedesk connected to the same cameras the old PC continued to work and record without freezing / stuttering. The cameras and switch were just fine with a double load.

Kind regards

Mark