PC Based NVR

I am looking for some tips on building a PC based - NVR for 4 to 6, 2MP IP cameras. It will be used as a server only. The NVR/CMS software recommends an i5 CPU, 4GB Ram as min spec. The client will be my Dell Precision M6600 laptop.

 

I would like about 1 month of archives. This is what I have so far.

 

Core i7-2600 3.4Ghz CPU

Integrated Intel Video

8GB 1600Mhz Memory

64GB SSD OS/Application drive

4 x 3TB Seagate Barracude 7200k SATA III drives.

Win 7 Pro 64bit

 

Thanks

Sounds like extreme overkill to me... although it should last a long time without needing an upgrade.

 

The one place you DON'T want to scrimp is in the hard drives - if you're spending this much on the machine, spend the extra for enterprise-grade drives, like the Seagate Constellation or the Western Digital Caviar RE4. Ideally, run them on a hardware RAID card that will do RAID5 or even RAID6, to give you some data redundancy - one drive failing means you lose 3TB of data all at once.

When is comes to video cards for the server machine, do I not need a high end GFX card or will the integrated Intel GFX do?

Integrated is fine, even the VMS. It's just doing basic DirectDraw rendering, no 3D or anything fancy.

I picked up some of these...

 

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/sv35/

I am using this Antec case for the system. I have two of them that I never used, brand new in the box. Its a very nice case.

 

http://hardwarelogic.com/articles.php?id=5508&print=1&singlepage=1

Got the NVR built today. I change the specs a little than previously mentioned.

 

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz

Antec Mini P180 case

ASUS Maximus V Gene LGA 1155 Intel Z77 Micro-ATX board

Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000

8GB Kingston Hyper X 1600Mhz Memory

64GB Samsung 830 SSD OS/Application SATA III drive

3 x 3TB Seagate SV35 7200k SATA III drives

SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold power supply

Win 7 Pro 64bit

Edited June 8, 2012 by Guest

One more pic

Hope ya got proper airflow design through that bad boy!

Nice build but WAY overkill for a NVR

I figured it was overkill. I had some of the parts already. It has two case fans, one is a 200MM tri cool and the other is a 120MM tri cool.

 

http://www.antec.com/product.php?id=3&fid=6

Very nice build. Hope it serves you well for years to come.

 

Just a suggestion for cooling - one thing I always like to do is use hard drive fans. They cool down the drives dramatically. I don't know if it will fit in between the drives in that case though.

Something like this.

I figured it was overkill. I had some of the parts already. It has two case fans, one is a 200MM tri cool and the other is a 120MM tri cool.

 

http://www.antec.com/product.php?id=3&fid=6

Peppering the case with massive fans won't help if the airflow isn't designed properly. It's all about moving air smoothly through the machine, usually in the front and out the back. Poor design will leave "pockets" that aren't ventilated properly and will just build up areas of heat.

I still have 3 more open bays for hard drives, 4 if I remove the CD-Rom drive. I could move the drives around to make room. The ambient room temp is very cool to begin with. Those SV35 drives are suppose to run cool. I will keep a close eye on the temps.

 

IMO, that case is well designed for air flow. Air is drawn out the top and back. Fresh cool air is brought in from the front, right across the drives. So much that a piece of paper will stick to the front of the case.

In my opinion Antec makes a great product. Back in the day when I was still building PCs I almost exclusively used Antec cases.

Need some help...I am in testing mode right now. The CNB NVR software is working great. I also was using the CNB CMS software on the same machine for testing. Both are working great. The CNB iPhone app is also working. When connected to my wireless network, I can view my cameras on my iPhone.

 

Now I want to use the CMS on my laptop when connect to my network, but it keeps saying my local NVR server is not found. I have not made any changes to my Fios router, everything has been PnP so far. I tried my laptop hard wired directly to the TRENDnet switch and to my FIOS Router. I exported the NVR server settings file from the CMS running on the local NVR machine and imported it in the CMS installed on my laptop. Still didn't work. It's probably a simple configuration setting, but I am not a network guru. Any help would be great.

 

Here is a diagram of my setup...the cameras are different models though. Thanks!

 

I finally got the CMS working on my laptop through my Wireless FIOS Router. I had the wrong IP. Now I just have to setup viewing from the internet and I am good to go.

Got remote viewing via internet it working! This CNB CMS and NVR software is really nice.

I would like about 1 month of archives. This is what I have so far.

Core i7-2600 3.4Ghz CPU

Integrated Intel Video

8GB 1600Mhz Memory

64GB SSD OS/Application drive

4 x 3TB Seagate Barracude 7200k SATA III drives.

Win 7 Pro 64bit

Thanks

 

To be honest you dont need that much CPU and RAM, Im running a dell optiplex gx520 pentium 4 ht 3.2ghz with 2gb ram and an 500gb hard drive and running 3 logitech hd webcam c615 720p with ubuntu 11.10 64 bits and Im recording front and back and not inside as my girlfriend likes to keep an eye of her hamsters and cats but if you are going to be using a capture card I recommend a Core Duo CPU or higher myself and 2GB if available.. but that may be just me.

 

Client viewer: I have ip cam viewer (paid) but lite works fine before i payed for it, Its on my sony ericsson arc s running android gingerbread 2.3.4 and my girlfriends blackberry shes uses monitorbee demo

 

PC cost me £25 in total from ebay and another stick of 1gb ram £15

logitech hd webcam c615 720p = £60

software/OS = Free as but i got a pre made OS copy from here http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18782

 

total = £105 pound

I went just a little above the min spec system req that was in the software manual. Either way is a moot point as the system has been built and working for over a week now.

Hi,

 

New poster here, just read your thread. Very helpful, I am about to build a PC NVR with very similar specs.

 

I have a Cisco SG300-10P switch as the central POE device. All my cameras are Geovision, therefore I am planning on running GV-NVR server.

 

I wanted to take advantage of the Ivy Bridge GPU acceleration and so I've specced my machine as follows.

 

Core i5 3570K

Asus P8H77-I mitx motherboard

16GB of 1866mhz G.skill ram

Intel 330 60GB SSD

Lian Li PC-Q25

Silverstone Strider 500W modular PSU

4x Western Digital Red 3TB

 

 

The hard drives are rated for 24/7 operation and everything fits into a tiny mitx case. Main two concerns was the GPU decode (I emailed Geovision and they have only validated the 3500 and 3700 series CPU's) and cramming it all into the smallest possible footprint.

 

I also compared this with purchasing a SuperMicro 1U Server, featuring QM77 chipset with i7-3612QE CPU. However I felt that I was paying more money for less performance, I didn't need the system to be rack mountable and Geovision told me it was unsupported as the chipset was not validated.

 

A lot of people might consider this overkill but the recommended specs is 8GB of ram minimum and the 3570K is the slowest validated proc.

How the motherboard been doing I been read a lot of complaints and ***ing about the ASUS Maximus V Gene LGA 1155 Intel Z77 Micro-ATX board.

 

Any problems on your end?

 

 

Others welcomed to throw their input in.

 

Thx

Sounds like extreme overkill to me

totally agree with you i still got mine on a P4 HT 3.00GHz with 512MB RAM

Here the same situation but I need to install 15 IP Cameras, do you recommend a strong PC? Also which RAID you recommend for better performance? RAID 0 or 5?