NAS and DVR

[desertcomputer]

Hi i was wondering if the below build is enough to use a home nas/server. The main usage is running PLEX/Transmission and ZoneMiner (4 1080p IP Cameras) and file hosting locally and owncloud/webdav for simple sharing. I was wondering is the cpu enough power for the above task. I was hoping to run a linux distro such as Ubuntu server or go window server depending which one performs the best.  

 

 

Already have existing drives, is it a pain to transfer over FREENAS ZFS raid, or should i just backup and restore as i have 2TB google drives from local guide promotion.  The extra drives is to put my local record data onto, i will be also be doing backup to external source so having raid for that is kinda useless for my use case.  

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/9m9fd6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/9m9fd6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($152.00 @ CPL Online) 
Motherboard: ASRock E3C224 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($259.00 @ CPL Online) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($68.00 @ CPL Online) 
Case: Silverstone Precision SST-PS13B ATX Mid Tower Case  ($55.00 @ CPL Online) 
Other: Samsung 8GB 2x4GB PC3L-12800E 2Rx8 DDR3-1600 240PIN CL11 Unbuffered ECC Memory ($70.00)
Other: Samsung 8GB 2x4GB PC3L-12800E 2Rx8 DDR3-1600 240PIN CL11 Unbuffered ECC Memory ($0.00) - Already Have
Total: $604.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-05 23:23 AEDT+1100

[Rohime]

The only thing that will put any workload of note on the CPU is transcoding video in real time.   For everything you specifically describe the CPU is way over your needs.

As a general rule you should try to run plex clients that support as many media formats as possible so you don't need to transcode video on the fly.

Having said that the newest formats ( like H265 ) are not supported by many lightweight clients.

The core i3 should cope with these fine though - just be careful with multiple concurrent streams that need transcoding at same time (avoid doing this as above).

[desertcomputer]

17 minutes ago, Rohime said:

The only thing that will put any workload of note on the CPU is transcoding video in real time.   For everything you specifically describe the CPU is way over your needs.

As a general rule you should try to run plex clients that support as many media formats as possible so you don't need to transcode video on the fly.

Having said that the newest formats ( like H265 ) are not supported by many lightweight clients.

The core i3 should cope with these fine though - just be careful with multiple concurrent streams that need transcoding at same time (avoid doing this as above).

I heard stories like people running in problems having high cpu usages while having like 5 cameras? Does this usages range from cameras or is what i read misleading? 

[Rohime]

5 minutes ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

I heard stories like people running in problems having high cpu usages while having like 5 cameras? Does this usages range from cameras or is what i read misleading? 

Well, if you get cameras that stream for example an Mpeg2 data stream then the NAS shouldn't need much CPU ... its just writing the stream to disk.    But if its some form of data stream that needs to be ENCODED by the NAS, then yeah, you will need to understand the video encoding requirements at the software to understand CPU impact. 

 

ie: depends on your choice of cameras and software... 

 

You wil also need to consider the bit rates of the cameras to work out if Disk will support.

for example 1080p30fps is half the I/O rate of 1080p60fps for example... and if you use high-bit rate encoding then you may need faster drives... 

Edited October 5, 2016 by Rohime
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[desertcomputer]

2 minutes ago, Rohime said:

Well, if you get cameras that stream for example an Mpeg2 data stream then the NAS shouldn't need much CPU ... its just writing the stream to disk.    But if its some form of data stream that needs to be ENCODED by the NAS, then yeah, you will need to understand the video encoding requirements at the software to understand CPU impact. 

 

ie: depends on your choice of cameras and software... 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1080P-CCTV-Ip-Camera-Wireless-2-0MP-Full-HD-Outdoor-waterproof-Wifi-Mini-Cameras-Network-Cam/32394781078.html

 

What im thinking of getting. I thinking of running ZoneMiner for notification and motion detection and archiving. 

[Rohime]

So data rates seem to be:

Video coding	Multi stream:1920P 30fps VGA 30fps QVGA  30fps 1080P   1fsJPEG capture
Bit Rate	CBR/VBR,output range: 32kbps-40Mbps

 

 

 

with encoding as:

Compression format

H.264 Baseline Profile  H.264 Main Profile   MJPEG/ JPEG Baseline

 

 

So it should be OK.... although its not really 100% clear that the encoding is done on the camera (what you want) vs. in supplied software (what you dont want) - but it seems more likely from description that it is in camera.

[Rohime]

23 minutes ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1080P-CCTV-Ip-Camera-Wireless-2-0MP-Full-HD-Outdoor-waterproof-Wifi-Mini-Cameras-Network-Cam/32394781078.html

 

What im thinking of getting. I thinking of running ZoneMiner for notification and motion detection and archiving. 

ZoneMiner application seems to do a lot in CPU:

http://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html#why-is-zoneminder-using-so-much-cpu  

[Emmien]

It is ZoneMinder, not miner.

[desertcomputer]

4 hours ago, Emmien said:

It is ZoneMinder, not miner.

K, thanks for useless input. 

 

11 hours ago, Rohime said:

So data rates seem to be:

Video coding	Multi stream:1920P 30fps VGA 30fps QVGA  30fps 1080P   1fsJPEG capture
Bit Rate	CBR/VBR,output range: 32kbps-40Mbps

 

 

 

with encoding as:

Compression format

H.264 Baseline Profile  H.264 Main Profile   MJPEG/ JPEG Baseline

 

 

So it should be OK.... although its not really 100% clear that the encoding is done on the camera (what you want) vs. in supplied software (what you dont want) - but it seems more likely from description that it is in camera.

I can always lower the fps on the recording if the CPU is under 100% stress.