HUPER DVR

[chewingyu 0]

I was told that high heat is generated with the RAID 5 system as it involves 3 harddisks running 24/7. So, cool ambient temperature is critical apparently.

 

Even then, they cannot guarantee that it would solve the problem. So frustrating this problem.

 

Huh, I was even contemplated putting dry ice before the vent of each DVR where the ventilation fan sucks in air to cool the DVR! Imagine the poor security chap having to load chunks of dry ice every hour! Twas a wild thought but hey, it is still a solution, and a cheap one too! : D

[sajaan458 0]

I have tested HuperLab's DVR card and they are not bad... Far as standard security point of view they are not as good as Geo and Aver but for certain application they are not bad... Alot of the features that Huber has are not in Geo and Aver and I recommend anyone who doesn't know the features that HupberLab offers then they should really visit there web site... Yes, I been told the samething about people who made Huper are x-employees of Geo which i hear all time where soo many of Geo's employess have left and started making there own or came out with simlar card as Geo (very confusing-Thank god we dont' use Geo anymore). We did not make the move to Huper because for majority of security application Geo and Aver works really well but while back we made the move from Geo to Avermedia as we found aver's DVR were alot more stable, easier to use (from end-user's point because at the end of the day those system are use by Eng-User not techs agian not all the time but for the most part) and Aver's DVR brought in alot less support calls... Sorry I am not trying to put any company down but trying to present the facts based on our experiance and from what I have heard from our dealers who used Geo before.

 

Regards,

 

Sajaan

Edited December 21, 2006 by Guest

[chewingyu 0]

Actually, having 'calmed' down a bit, I did a bit of reflection. I think the problems I am facing may not be Huper software as it is with the hardware (and to a certain degree the environment).

 

Still, one tends to look at the DVR as a whole.

[rory 0]

well i was just going through cooling stuff last night on various online computer stores .. there are some awesome hardware available for really low prices .. that will practically freeze your entire PC once your done .. take a look at an online retailer for cooling devices .. also read ALL the reviews as some of the products either dont work or die quick .. especially some of the ones that come with fans .. and then there is the noise level you need to check with each of them also.

[Thomas in BP 0]

If you are running on Windows and you are worried about the temp of your HDDs, then I recommend that you try to access the S.M.A.R.T. info from the HDDs. I am messing around with making my home PC quiet and I use SpeedFan (http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php), which gives me the S.M.A.R.T. info as well as info from a lot of other sensors in the system. For a HDD you should not let temps go much higher than 45˚C, for a powerful VGA card you are in the clear up until at least 90˚C, and the CPU, well depends very much on the processor, but if you are lower than 55-60˚C then you should be relatively safe (check the specs of the CPU). For all the components it goes that the higher the temp, the lower the performance (however marginally) and, more importantly, the lower the expected life-time of your components.

 

If your HDD temps are less than 45˚C then the reason why the system crash may have to be found elsewher, probably the PSU. I have read many reports on PCs acting strange and irradically if the power supply is under-dimensioned. If you are using RAID with several HDDs then you put quite a bit more strain on the system than if you only had one or two drives. In general a HDD consumes around 9-10W, so if you have, say, 6 HDDs then you pull at least 40W more than on a 'normal' PC. If you also use a powerful frame grabber card, then you can add 8-10W more. In general, a 'normal' PC with typical specs pull somewhere between 250-350W, while gaming PCs pull up to 450W or more (with SLI). If your PSU is rated for 350W or lower, then I bet that is where the problem is to be found.

 

The ambient temperature does play a role, but not a whole lot. If you have 35˚C ambient that just means that you will not be able to air cool anything lower than...surprise...35˚C However, the higher the ambient temp the higher the air flow you need to keep things cool. The ATX specs are quite old and were published back when a 200W system was enormous, therefore most PC cases (I have no experience with rack cases) still only have an 80mm fan in front of the HDDs and the air inlet is dimensioned accordingly. On my home PC I have dremmeled the inlet for better airflow and I actually use a tower case with room for two 120mm fans. As my goal is low noise I undervolt the fans to about 6V, but by just switching from an 80mm fan to a 120mm fan at standard 12V you may get up to 15-20CFM more airflow!

 

Yate Loon fans are quite good I hear (they are standard in most name brand PCs), but personally I use S-Flex fans from Scythe which are a bit more expensive, but they have a better noise signature as they use 'SONY Fluid Dynamic Bearings' which promise double the life-time, but that may just be marketing blah blah.

 

If you don't know ˚C, then (˚C x 2) + 32 gives you the ˚F with a low margin of error!

[chewingyu 0]

Well, not so sure about the fans but at least now my CCTV room ambient temp is about 22 deg C. Should be okay, right?

 

But, I still do experience occasional HDD failures. My contractor will be replacing all the harddisks with this so-called specially-made-for-CCTV-DVR ones. I am beginning to get a little tired of this whole harddisk failure episode. Not sure if it is the hardware, software or installation problem.

 

I was reading another discussion thread on PC based vs Embedded. Beginning to wonder if I should eventually switch to embedded. But the debate is quite a lot to swallow. I guess each has its own pros and cons

 

Okay, I digress from the topic at hand.

 

So, I will keep fingers crossed, hopefully, with this change of harddisks, things will improve!