What mini PC would be suitable for running Blue Iris?

[Porc]

I currently run 5 cameras on Blue Iris on an older i3 desktop, and it works fine. However, I would like to offload this to its own PC that I only use for Blue Iris (and maybe also serve up Plex server content to my Roku). The main reason is that I want to use full disk encryption on my primary desktop PC, but doing so prevents automatic restart if the power goes out, making it impossible to restart Blue Iris while we're away on a trip. So, Blue Iris needs to be on its own computer without full disk encryption. But, I don't have a lot of space on my computer desk... ideally I would like one of those tiny PC's that can use a Vesa mount on the back of a monitor so you don't even know it's there. I don't have room for 2 full towers on the floor. I won't even have a monitor/keyboard/mouse permanently connected to this thing except for initial setup purposes.... just power cable and Ethernet. After setup, I only plan to log into it using the Blue Iris apps or remote desktop connection.

So, what might work? There's a bunch of stuff out there but somewhat limited in choices, and with odd brand names no one has heard of like "Beelink" and "ACEPC". I'm hoping something in the $200 range would suffice. I definitely don't want to go over $300.

I wish this ran on Linux then I could try my $35 Raspberry Pi. That may be too underpowered though even if it could run the software.

[Porc]

Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-X45-Wind ... op?ie=UTF8

[terk]

I wouldn't expect a Celeron processor to be able to handle very many camera streams. Intel NUCs can be purchased with i3 - i7 procs and should be able to handle much more the tough part with any Micro PC is Storage space some NUC chasis provide room for a 2.5" HDD.

[Porc]

Some of these low-end mini PCs have an Atom processor. I think those are faster than Celeron?

I'm not too worried about the storage space aspect of it since I only need one storage device in there.

Hey, I just discovered that link to the "Blue Iris Update Helper" performance data. It looks like there are few entries in there for Celeron and Atom.

[Porc]

As for the Intel NUC's, with an i3 the cheapest I see is about $500. So, that's making this idea a bit expensive, but something I think would work. I did find some brand I never heard of with an i3 for $300... no idea if it's any good.

[HeneryH]

I would just get a small form factor business pc and put it in a closet somewhere out of the way.

[sspeed]

You haven't gotten a whole lot of replies because the you are setting yourself up for failure, but you're confident it will work.

A Celeron or Atom isn't necessarily ideal for Blue Iris. It may be working fine now, but I wonder what your settings are, ie "Limit encoding unless required" on a key camera. You can pretty much guarantee how well Blue Iris is going to work by the Passmark score of the CPU. The Passmark score of the Celeron you posted is 2634, an i5-7400 is 7334.

In the future it's almost a sure thing you will add cameras. Even if you could make something kind of work now, odds are it won't be good long term.

A quick search on the Dell outlet shows an i5-7400 quadcore for $413. https://outlet.us.dell.com/ArbOnlineSal ... 2XEAviXcaB

In fact, Ken has given you a great tool so see what system would be good for you.

https://biupdatehelper.hopto.org/default.html#stats

[Porc]

You haven't gotten a whole lot of replies because the you are setting yourself up for failure, but you're confident it will work.

Actually I'm confident a more expensive i3 would work. That's what I have now and have been using for about 6 years, and the only issue I've ever had is if I try to play videos from my drone footage... it is jumpy unless I disable BI. (All other videos play fine while BI is in use.) I'm not confident an Atom or Celeron would work well, especially with all the comments about it.

That's a possible idea for a refurbished PC with faster CPU... I'll ponder that one as it would be a way to reduce costs.

[sspeed]

Right, it all comes down to Passmark score, price, what your settings are, how important the footage is, and your future expandability.

You have 5 cameras now, what are their resolution, framerates, keyframe settings and is bitrate at CBR or VBR, what is your max bitrate?

Do you ever plan to add any cameras?

How important is the footage?

Do you capture pre-event video? How many seconds?

Do you have "Limit encoding unless required" set? If so, understand that with that settings Blue Iris only looks at each keyframe, which is why I asked about keyframe settings above. While it gives tremendous CPU savings, you need to be uber careful about your make times and keyframes or you will miss important footage, which is why I asked how important it is?

Do you watch from the screen, web or app often?

[Porc]

I may put a 6th camera but that's likely it (I had 6 cameras before until my old Logitech Alert cameras started dying one by one). I don't recall all those details, but I did reduce the frame rate from whatever the default was to reduce the heavy network traffic it was causing. I did not change anything else.

Importance is high enough to have a chance at getting some ID of a possible bad guy entering the yard, that's about it.

I capture a few seconds before the event.

I haven't touched "Limit encoding unless required".

I normally just look at the alerts on my phone (which is usually false alarms due to snow, rain, bugs, trees moving, clouds moving... sigh... wish I could stop most of those!) My wife tends to just leave a window open permanently showing the front yard while she's doing something else in the room.