Computer for surveillance cameras

[dryfly]

I'm planning a 6 IP camera system using a PC for management and recording. I just can't find enough info on what CPU to use, as well as how much RAM needed. I'm going to use a CPU with onboard graphics, probably an i5 or i7 processor. Think I could get by with an i3? How much ram?

 

[el etro]

Buy a Digital Video Recorder, is better.

 

[cytg111]

I'm planning a 6 IP camera system using a PC for management and recording. I just can't find enough info on what CPU to use, as well as how much RAM needed. I'm going to use a CPU with onboard graphics, probably an i5 or i7 processor. Think I could get by with an i3? How much ram?

What app? Going by zoneminder forums i am sure you will find plenty of likewise questions.
I am currently writing my own surveillance app in c#, for reference a feed at 30fps 320x240, encoding on the fly to .264 utilizes ~10% cpu(debug) on a i7 4770 stock.
edit : oups - that was with some per-pixel transformation testing i did, without it is down at ~1%

 

[Yuriman]

What app? Going by zoneminder forums i am sure you will find plenty of likewise questions.
I am currently writing my own surveillance app in c#, for reference a feed at 30fps 320x240, encoding on the fly to .264 utilizes ~10% cpu(debug) on a i7 4770 stock.

Given that, you could probably get by with an Atom CPU.

 

[Soulkeeper]

As mentioned above it really depends what applications and exactly what's being done
Unless you are doing realtime 1080p transcoding of multiple streams or something crazy ... really simple "recording" would be light on resources. The cameras probably have a native format that they simply transfer to the pc for storage (ie: the system would essentially be like a storage device).

 

[dryfly]

As mentioned above it really depends what applications and exactly what's being done
Unless you are doing realtime 1080p transcoding of multiple streams or something crazy ... really simple "recording" would be light on resources. The cameras probably have a native format that they simply transfer to the pc for storage (ie: the system would essentially be like a storage device).

IP cameras are really new to me so I don't know if I'm going to be doing anything exotic or not. By that I mean I'm putting 5 or 6 IP cameras on a network. That's it. Just view and record to hardrive. A couple will be on motion detection.

I was given 4 Geovision 1.3MP dome cameras. To that I will add another 1.3 MP bullet camera. I will be using the Geovison software. Because of a slow DSL connection I doubt that I will be doing much remote viewing.

Just trying to see how cheap I can get away with on building a dedicated computer to *play* with all this.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Dual core CPU, HHD, memory,PSU,Case, mother board, monitor, key board, mouse, and operating system. You can get a decent pre-built, then add on HDD'S.
http://www.newegg.com/DIY-PC-SuperCombos/PromotionStore/ID-33?name=DIY-PC-SuperCombo

 

[Charlie98]

I have a Swann DVR setup with a 500GB HDD... it's about as idiot proof as it comes (case in point. ) I don't think it requires great CPU power to record, and my unit will playback live, and stream over network (if I read the specs correctly.) It came with 4 cameras, all the wire, and the 4-camera capable system box (I wish I would have paid the extra $100 and got the 8 camera-capable system...) with full support. Running 4 cameras, recording in highest resolution possible, I get 22 days footage on the 500GB drive.

I just don't see how you can beat a prebuilt system @ ~$400, ready to rock with factory support...

 

[TeknoBug]

Fanless Celeron J1900 or Z3540D/Z3575F or just get a DVR.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

I actually do this kind of work on a freelance basis, using Linux and Zoneminder...

Assuming you're using these and getting cameras with a decent RTSP stream capability, say 720p@30fps, you don't need a HUGE amount of power but it's good to have lots of threading capability for many cameras at once as you describe. Plenty of RAM doesn't hurt either.

I built a client a very small machine (think "Slim Mini-ITX board in 2.5"-tall aluminum case with the footprint of a mousepad") with a Core i3-4130T, which is plenty enough power (2c/4t@2.9 GHz) in a 35W TDP. Storage of a lot of data is a problem if you're doing it all locally, as that case can't really handle full-sized HDDs, but less so if you only retain a few weeks' worth of footage and/or forward it to a NAS or something.

 

[dryfly]

I actually do this kind of work on a freelance basis, using Linux and Zoneminder...

Assuming you're using these and getting cameras with a decent RTSP stream capability, say 720p@30fps, you don't need a HUGE amount of power but it's good to have lots of threading capability for many cameras at once as you describe. Plenty of RAM doesn't hurt either.

I built a client a very small machine (think "Slim Mini-ITX board in 2.5"-tall aluminum case with the footprint of a mousepad") with a Core i3-4130T, which is plenty enough power (2c/4t@2.9 GHz) in a 35W TDP. Storage of a lot of data is a problem if you're doing it all locally, as that case can't really handle full-sized HDDs, but less so if you only retain a few weeks' worth of footage and/or forward it to a NAS or something.

Based on the answers I'm getting (and I do appreciate) the solution may be more specific to the cameras and software from Geovision. There may not be a generic answer for all hardware/software. I too am thinking that my needs may be served by an i3, but I guess for the little difference in cost of an i5 with 8gb of ram might do the trick.

I don't want to use a dedicated NVR as they are quite expensive from Geovision.

 

[386DX]

You don't need a very powerful CPU for video recording unless like others have said you're gonna transcode on the fly which you won't do nowadays as most IP camera already outputs to durectly to H.264 encoded format so nothing is really done on the CPU side by handle the writing to disk and indexing.