Xprotect system spec examples

[drbax 0]

I'm wanting to build or purchase a computer just to run Xprotect essentials on. I don't want to get a system that's too underpowered to run 6 to 8 HD cameras but I also don't want to over do it. Can you guys tell me the specs of some of the systems you're running Xprotect on with no problems? Thank you for your comments.

[Mael 0]

Here's the parts list from my build. I'm running XProtect Essential with 10 3MP cameras. Each camera is streaming at 2048×1536 20fps 4096kps CBR. It's probably overkill for 6 - 8 cameras, but I wanted a system I could expand up to 16 cameras.

 

CPU - Intel Core i7-4770S Quad-Core Desktop Processor 3.1 GHZ 8 MB Cache- BX80646I74770S $314.17

CPU Cooler - Cooler Cooler Master Hyper TX3 - CPU Cooler with 3 Direct Contact Heat Pipes (RR-910-HTX3-G1) $26.10

Mini ITX Motherboard - Gigabyte LGA 1150 Intel H87 Dual LAN DVI HDMI UEFI DualBIOS Mini ITX DDR3 1600 Motherboard (GA-H87N $97.73

Hard Drive OS - Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 120GB SSD $89.99

Hard Drive Recordings - 2x WD 2 TB WD Purple SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache RAID 0 $196 for the pair

Power Supply - Antec EarthWatts EA-380D Green 380 Watt 80 PLUS BRONZE Power Supply $42.75

Case - Fractal Design Node 304 FD-CA-NODE-304-BL Black Aluminum / Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case $79.99

Memory - G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-4GBTD $48.99

 

I'm monitoring this system with Cacti. Here are the CPU, memory and network utilization graphs for the system. When I hooked up a Kill-A-Watt to the system, it's drawing 51 watts with Milestone running. With nothing running it idles at 44 watts.

[drbax 0]

Wow thats nice system you put together. Thank you for such a detailed response, that really helps.

[ssnapier 0]

Cacti is so freaking cool... I love that program!

[Mael 0]

Wow thats nice system you put together. Thank you for such a detailed response, that really helps.

 

Thanks... the Intel Core i7-4770S is a great processor. Low power and it really handles the load well. Regardless of the other components you choose, I would use i7-4770S with a good low power PSU.

[buellwinkle 0]

I went the opposite way on commercial installs with a Dell T20 with the Xeon processor. On sale it's cheaper, but full price is $499. It's probably close to a consumer grade i5 processor in performance which is way more than enough for say a dozen cameras on XProtect (at home I run 10 cameras, mostly 3MP, all full frame rate on an old, old i3-540 processor). It has 6 drive bays, 4 are 3 1/2", easy to pop in. It's made to be a 24/7 server so the fans are beefier, the components are beefier, overall well made compared to their consumer PCs and it's small, about the size of a regular desktop.

 

From an article I read from a law enforcement surveillance cameras consultant is the #1 failure for police departments that use consumer grade PC's as NVRs is the fans go out. Could be the CPU fan, the case fan, the power supply fan. When a fan goes out, if you are very lucky it costs you a new fan, but in many cases, the fan failure goes unnoticed because it's not a daily use PC, so other components overheat and fail. In my personal case recently, CPU fan failed took the motherboard out, PC became landfill material. But think if you get a new consumer grade PC as an NVR, it should last at least 2-3 years.

[thewireguys 3]

It has 6 drive bays, 4 are 3 1/2", easy to pop in. It's made to be a 24/7 server so the fans are beefier, the components are beefier, overall well made compared to their consumer PCs and it's small, about the size of a regular desktop.

 

Do you need drive cages to add more drives to the T20 or do they come with?

 

[Mael 0]

From an article I read from a law enforcement surveillance cameras consultant is the #1 failure for police departments that use consumer grade PC's as NVRs is the fans go out. Could be the CPU fan, the case fan, the power supply fan. When a fan goes out, if you are very lucky it costs you a new fan, but in many cases, the fan failure goes unnoticed because it's not a daily use PC, so other components overheat and fail. In my personal case recently, CPU fan failed took the motherboard out, PC became landfill material. But think if you get a new consumer grade PC as an NVR, it should last at least 2-3 years.

 

I've been managing IT teams responsible for managing thousands of servers for over 15 years and I think many of the aftermarket case and CPU fans are better than those that come in low-end servers. Regardless of which way you go, fan failures are a fact of life and it’s always a good idea to have some sort of monitoring for either high temperatures, fan failures, or both. For small setups you can use something simple like one of these StarTech inline fan alarms.

 

The other option is to hook into some other remote monitoring solution. I’ve been working on integrating temperature and fan speed monitoring via SNMP using Cacti and SpeedFan. When I’m done, I’ll get a page when the temperature gets too high in my server.

[Lebeter 0]

just use the motherboard BIOS temp alert/shutdown and configure it for 5 degrees over the hottest environment the chassis will see. you will hear it beeping when the time comes, this concern is way overblown. the ventilation in the chassis installation's environment should be of more concern. blow the thing out once a year and be done with it.

 

i ran 6 cameras @ roughly 12.8MP between 20-30fps on a leftover amd phenom x4 3.2ghz with a mere 4gb ram with xprotect. Nothing special. A basic 4 core i5 or i7 will be enough. You just need to be realistic with yourself if you expect to expand beyond the 8 cameras xprotect offers in the basic free package.

[buellwinkle 0]

Do you need drive cages to add more drives to the T20 or do they come with?

 

It has these green plastic drive holders. You ply them apart and pins in the holder go into where screws would go in on the side of the drives to hold it in place. Then it clips into the chassis, 2 at the bottom, 2 on top. The cables are already there, just plug them in, but not like a drive cage, you have to plug the sata and power cable in.