Help with new PC based residential system design

[bbh03 0]

Hello,

 

I am working on designing a new system to replace my 8ch Lorex system. I plan to build PC based system to run BI and would like some help with specifying the PC components. Here are my requirements and some of the existing equipment I will be using.

 

-Mini ITX configuration in a rack mounted chassis (for example, http://www.servercase.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=D-118V2-ITX-22FX8&Category_Code=MS).

-Blue Iris VMS

-Run a minimum of 8 cams, prefer to have enough power to upgrade to 10-12 if needed in future. Generally, these will be 2-3MP cameras. (Actual cameras to be specified later, may use existing Lorex cams until new cams are added if possible)

-One HDD on board to run OS and VMS.

-Video will be recorded to a Synology RS815 running 4xWD Red drives in RAID (Existing)

-Switchgear: Ubnt Edgeswitch 24 w POE (Existing)

-All camera runs via Cat5e (no wireless)

 

So, I am building for flexibility and reliability, but would like to make use of my existing infrastructure (switch and NAS). I plan to use BI as I do not want to be married to a single cam manufacturer. I am open to other VMS suggestions however.

 

At this point, I would like to specify the key components of the PC. Can anyone help with choosing an appropriate motherboard, CPU, HDD? Will onboard video/NIC be usable (Prefer to contain this in a shallow 1U rack chassis if possible)

 

Thanks,

 

Brian

[Daryl733 0]

Just curious, why would you want to complicate a simple system which in turn also ends up to be more costly ?

 

Are you gonna separate your Cameras network from your normal home network ?

Or you are just gonna put everything in a single network ?

 

Do note that 3Megapixel will constantly takes up over 10Mbps each on the network it's on.

For 8 Cameras, that'll be ard 80Mbps of constant bandwidth taken up from your Cameras to your PC.

And since you are using a NAS for storagem another 80Mbps constant bandwidth taken up from your PC Based NVR to the NAS.

That's more than 160Mbps constantly occupied on your network by these streaming video.

That's not including any bandwidth used if you are gonna view the video on another client or from a remote site.

 

Not to mention that now the NAS will be constantly recording over 80Mbps of data in the storage.

If you are using the NAS for purely CCTV Video Storage, that's fine.

But if you are also using it as a NAS, you'll have files spread over other sectors unless you are mounting the HDD as seperate volume.

Otherwise, the NAS will be constantly switching between sectors constantly writing the CCTV Video that's coming in, and also attempting to read and write other aspect of your file storage for your other uses.

 

Most CCTV Purposed NVR comes with a LAN and WAN port to segregate the CCTV Cameras network from the external network.

Some come with POE switches @ LAN, others provide a single LAN port which you can hook up to external switches/POE switches, in your case, the Edgeswitch.

Cameras streaming are limited to this segregated network and doesn't affect the bandwidth of the rest of your network.

You could also install the HDD directly into the NVR, some supporting redundancy and multiple HDD as well. If you are looking at cost saving, take 2 HDD from your NAS and put them into the NVR instead.

 

If you are concern about compatibility, most IP Cameras and NVR are ONVIF compatible, which means you can theoretically mix brand and is not limited to a single brand. I would advice against that for a clean setup as it's almost always easier to setup a single manufacturer equipment rather than mix and match brand although they are "compatible". There are also manufacturer specific functionality that works best when same brand equipments are integrated.

ONVIF only support the basic functions and some special/manufacturer specific functionality are not accessible or lost when using that.

 

You mentioned using PC Based 3rd party NVR software. That will basically limit you to the same functionality as the ONVIF standard.

 

Some example of extra functionality.

For some manufacturer, you can save/backup/upgrade the configuration/firmware of all same brand IP cameras connected to the NVR instead of having to access the cameras 1 by 1 to do so.

For some manufacturer, you can access/configure the IP Cameras configuration through the NVR rather than login to the camera to do configuration.

Some smart feature, e.g. line crossing, people counting, intrusion detection features available on the camera might be only accessible from the NVR and integrated with it when you are using the same brand of NVR.

 

You might want to consider sticking to the KISS principle.

[bbh03 0]

Thanks for your reply.

 

I am not totally against a commercial NVR, but have not yet found one I would like yet. And again, a bit afraid of being locked into one manufacturer. What would you suggest?

 

My router allows for two separate physical networks, however my plan was to locate the cameras on their own VLAN. Regarding storage, the NAS would have two separate disk groups (2 drives for data and 2 for the cameras - maybe even just 1 if I end up recording on motion only). Truth be told, there is not a lot of traffic on the NAS as it is used residentially and that thing has a lot of power.

[Daryl733 0]

Normally I'll recommend a more branded NVR that have a whole range of analogue and ip range of equipment.

Brands like Dahua, HIKVISION, etc. I'll stay away from those smaller unheard of brand.

 

Final decision is up to you.

 

Your rack mount chassies, http://www.servercase.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=D-118V2-ITX-22FX8&Category_Code=MS already cost quite a bit.

That doesn't include the motherboard, cpu, ram, hdd to run os, os licenses, etc.

If you work out the sum, it doesn't make economical sense to do otherwise.

 

Most devices supports multiple brand through ONVIF, although i still recommend sticking to 1 brand initially for clean installation.

 

The NAS also supports ONVIF camera, but just purchasing the license alone doesn't make economical sense, think it's around $60 for each additional ip cameras licenses for the 2nd cameras onwards. The 1st cam is free. So for 8 cameras, that's 7 x $60 = $420. You can get a 8 Channels NVR with POE for around 1/2 that price.

http://www.amazon.com/Synology-Camera-License-Pack-CLP1/dp/B001MJ0JAO

 

Unless you are looking at enterprise level projects where there are hundreds of cameras deployed and the systems needs grow and to be integrated over time , at this kind of pricing, sometimes it doesn't even matter if you go for a proprietary technology if it is cheap enough. Paying a premium for the flexibility that you never gonna use in the mid term might end up to be $ wasted.

 

I've customers who installed a 16 channels dvr years back for a 8 cameras installation thinking they want to add cameras in the future.

By the time they are looking at adding, the dvr is already obsolete and newer equipment and technology at less than the price premium they paid long time back is now available.

[bbh03 0]

You have a point regarding costs. I will look closer at the Dahua/Hiki lineups but I find their specs confusing at times. I'd like to be able to access remotely via VPN so I will have to be sure that can be done...

[Daryl733 0]

All you need is your router that support VPN.

Otherwise, you can also setup your NAS for VPN, think it support that as well.

 

Some of the NVR also support self signing cert for security.