Build for Blue Iris

Hello everyone,
I am looking to put together a blue iris nvr for my new home. would like some help picking out parts to keep a high value to $ ratio. right now the plan is 4x 4k poe cameras and likely a couple more down the road. any help is much appreciated

Put a 3.5" HDD in one of these and you’ll be good to go.

https://ebay.us/tlDE6b

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how many cameras could I realistically expect to run on this?

@riggi is the resident camera/BI expert, and this is definitely his recommendation.
I know it can run the setup you’re looking for, but I’m not sure what the maximum is. I’d defer to him.

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I asked the same question here a year ago. Then I figured what the heck and went big. I won an auction on eBay for an " [Open Box HP ProDesk 600 G5 SFF i7-9700 3.00GHz 16GB RAM 512GB SSD… ]" for $540. Right now I’m running 31 cameras on it (10 are 4K) and am currently using 41% CPU. I only record full time on a few of them, the rest record when they detect motion. I offload the video to my NAS where I save it for 10 days. Then it automatically deletes the older video.

sorry bumping an older post. I was curious if you had anymore info on your setup or a guide you followed? I am going to be building an NVR in the next few months and would like to do something similar, albeit with way less cameras.

There are no rules here against bumping old posts! :slight_smile:

Here is my Blue Iris box specs running on an HP S01. It’s been working awesome. I used to have a Win 10 VM running on the unRaid box below, but Quick Sync makes a HUGE difference. The Intel SSD is wicked fast too. I have also setup a Telegram bot to shoot me images it gets from AI Tool.

NVR Box running Blue Iris, AI Tool, & OpenALPR Rekor Scout Home plan with Open ALPR Tool: HP S01 with i3-10100, Win10 Pro, 16GB RAM, Intel 2TB P4500 for OS, DB and New Clips

unRaid Box: 18 TB for archive and running DeepStack container

Cameras: Amcrest SmartHome ADC2W, 2x Amcrest 4k Bullet IP8M-2496EB-28MM, 2x Amcrest 4k Turret P8M-T2499EB-28MM, 3x Wyze V2 with RTSP, 2x Reolink Argus 2 with solar panels (not tied into BI, used to monitor livestock), Reolink 5MP PTZ RLC-423 | LPR Camera: Loryta IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E

EDIT– More Info
The computer sits idle at about 18% CPU & memory @ 50%. When OpenALPR tags a plate it spikes to like 90% temporarily but I never really notice any performance issues when using the Blue Iris UI3 web interface scrubbing through video. Use of sub-streams helps immensely too. Let me know if you have any questions.

thanks for the reply. Is it difficult to use your unraid server as NVR storage? I use my unraid server currently for plex storage and just want to better understand how that all plays together.

As far as the NVR build, I was contemplating another hp290/hp s01 but I already have 2 (pfsense & plex) and I am concerned I won’t have enough space in a 12u rack. I am going to have to plan it all out and see what makes the best sense from a fit standpoint.

No it’s not difficult at all. Just set up the share on the unRaid server. I then just point Blue Iris to that share for longer term storage:

I have 2 unRaid servers. The first one runs Plex and all the fun stuff. This 2nd one is backup storage for the first and for NVR storage essentially.

I have an old mini form factor Lenovo with a 4570T - would that run Blue Iris?

I am leaning towards a HPS01 for lower power draw and lower temperatures but that’s an interesting option if it’s feasible.

Sure, it could.

I’ve used Zoneminder, Shinobi, and Motioneye…was wondering if I could gets some takes on is Blue Iris worth it? I just feel like these open source programs are really hit and miss and possibly lacking in documentation on how to properly dial in the cameras.

It’s good. Better than good. And had a trial