Mac Mini as NVR?

[bosscrab 0]

I have been thinking about using an older but recent Mac Mini as an NVR. It is a 2.3 ghz CoreI5 with 2gb ram.

 

I have 4 1.3 MP cameras.

 

Thinking about booting Windows 7 and using Blue Iris.

 

Thoughts?

[MaxIcon 0]

Any i5 should handle those cams on Blue Iris with no problem, depending on frame rate and pre-trigger frames.

 

Later-gen i5s are better, of course - not sure which i5 you've got.

 

I'm just retiring an i3-540 that I've been running BI on for some time. It handles 6 cams, 6MP total, 10 fps, 25 pre-trigger frames, but won't handle another 1MP cam without choking when multiple cams are recording. My new i5-3570k handles double the MP with room to spare.

 

If you're not already there, you should check out www.cam-it.org, which is the Blue Iris community support forum. Lots of good info there, and many helpful users.

 

One suggestion - once you've got a BI version working the way you want it, don't upgrade to every new version that comes out, as bugs sometimes sneak in. I maintain a stable install until there's a compelling reason to upgrade to avoid unexpected problems.

[JT1 0]

Let us know how this works out. I think a mini running Win7 should make a great BI PC. I see people spending much more than $600 for custom PCs, and they seem to be huge power hogs. My current AMD X6 700W works fine with multiple mp cams, but I am considering a mac mini due to size and power.

 

The form factor, built-in power supply, and resale value make this worthy of consideration.

 

I'm still debating the $200 difference between the i7 and i5.

[MaxIcon 0]

I know the BI developer recommends i7, but I don't know of anyone who's tested similarly clocked i5 vs i7 of the same generation, and nobody's said whether BI will use more than 4 threads.

 

The main differences are more cache, hyperthreading, and (sometimes) better video on the i7. The i5 3570k already has 4 cores, 6MB cache, and HD4000 graphics, so what the i7-3770k buys you is a bit more MHz, 2MB more cache, and hyperthreading (which only matters for apps using more than 4 threads).

 

As for power use, a Mini won't have any great advantage over a similarly configured PC, I believe. The main power use is the CPU, MB, and hard drive (assuming no external video card), and the only one specific to the Mini is the MB. A given CPU model running at a given % utilization will consume the same power in any system; same for a given hard drive.

 

My homebuilt i5 3570k box runs about 85W at 60% CPU, which is where it normally sits recording my 8 cams. This is with a WD Black 2TB drive, which runs about 10W. A green drive will cut that in half, though some people report issues streaming lots of video to green drives.

 

Likewise, I use the on-chip video; an external card with substantially more horsepower than the HD4000 will add at least 50W to the usage, and will go up quickly for serious graphics power.

 

ETA: Took a look at the Mac Mini specs, and they don't specify the actual i5 and i7 used, but they're definitely less powerful than the i5-3570k and i7-3770k, so you'd want to compare the specs they actually use, not the ones I list above. The i5 is a 2.5GHz dual core, which I don't even see in the Ivy Bridge lineup - is this Sandy Bridge?

 

ETA again - The i5 they use is a mobile device, so it's lower power, lower performance, and not upgradeable. It benches at about half the i5-2500 or i5-3570, so if low power use is more important than future expansion, it's certainly usable.

 

They also have a 500GB drive in the i5, and 1TB in the i7, so you might want to throw in the cost of an upgrade or an external drive.

 

The price/performance isn't looking too good for the Mini, so far. You could build a lot more power for $600...