Custom PC just for Sighthound

[flynreelow]

I would like to build a custom PC used strictly for Sighthound.

Im going to use it with 4-6 4mp cameras. Recording 24/7 with rules.

I looked at the Blue Iris Software, and they really like the Dell Optiplex 9020 i/7-4790.

They also say Ram is important, but using a dedicated video card is not.

Is this the same for Sighthound?

Any links would be great. Thanks

[Semper Vaporo]

I just finished setting up my 3rd system to run SightHound…

The 1st was an HP laptop with a triple core processor. I don’t remember much else about it, except that it was initially running 3 cameras 24/7 and it ran HOT and eventually began to cause problems as I began to add more cameras. I am sure it was heat related… a laptop is just not designed to run that long and hard.

So I bought an HP tower with a quad-core CPU… again I don’t remember much about it, except that it ran lots cooler as I increased the camera count to 7. But after the warranty timer ran out, the display card went bad… as well as the network card (wired) and the DVD and… well… then the drive died and I gave up on it.

The 3rd system…

I can tell you more about it, since I still have the paperwork right in front of me!

Dell XPS-8910

Intel Core i7-6700 @3.4 GHz (Quad core/dual threading, so nearly equal to 8 CPUs)

16GB RAM

The display card is a GeForce GTX-750-Ti, @ 1600x900 resolution. It is using 10 GB of total memory (2GB Dedicated Video Memory [on-board] and 8GB Shared System Memory) None of the high-end graphics capabilities are used at all by SightHound so it is quite an overkill and wasted silicon.

1-TB HDD - I think it has a small Solid State Drive built-in to the HDD, but I can’t find a way to use it separately from the spinning platter portion… I believe it is used as a buffer to make the drive appear to be faster, but the drive is only 5400RPM and that is slow and a bottle neck for a SightHound type of application.

I added a SanDisk Ultra II 960GB Solid State Drive.

It is running Windows 10, but since it is not connected to the Internet, it is not running the latest revisions of version 1607. I have killed just about every piece of bloatware that came with it, including Skype, One Drive, Cortana, Messaging, and the majority of the Anti-Malware that came with it. I have no intention of ever connecting it to the internet so there is no way for there to be a possible malware infection! And Windows Updates are basically useless since everything works the way I want now. I do not use the SightHound e-mail notifications or other external actions.

I have created a 999MB RAM drive and used the instructions given here on this site to redirect the location of the temporary files to it. (See: https://www.sighthound.com/forums/topic12202 )

I am now running 8 cameras total, 3 IP cameras (1 @ 640x480 and 2 @ 1280x720), all are wired… (my area is so clogged with WiFi signals of all channels that I stay off of them) and 5 USB Webcams. (3 @ 1280x720, 2 @ 320x240)

There are presently 13 SighthoundAgent.exe processes running (1 for each camera and 5 more for other purposes), plus the SightHound Video.exe program. The ”Agents” are using from 0 to 4 percent of the CPU time (System and System Interrupts are using 1 to 3 percent and my Alarm clock program never shows even 1 percent). The System Idle Process is running around 70 percent.

Most of the SightHound Agents are using less than 250,000 KB Private Working Set memory and most are below 330,000 KB in Commit Size. The highest usages correspond to the processes handling the higher resolution cameras.

Just some rough estimating says that the 8 cameras and the main program are using less than 3 GB, the RAM drive is using 1 GB, leaving around 12 GB for the operating system and the other 112 processes that are running right now. Task Manager shows 5.1 GB in use and 10.8 GB available!

Processor utilization is around 33% for 112 Processes, 1680 Threads, 53250 Handles

Ethernet is running at 144Kbps Send, and 11.1 Mbps Receive.

I don’t see anything in the system that is a bottleneck or being taxed beyond capability. I could easily add more cameras to the system with no problem… except that 1 TB SSD (SightHound presently set to use 890 GB) is not much to store what I have and keep ALL of the video for very long. I have set SightHound’s “Keep all video for” parameter to 336 hours (2 weeks) and that doesn’t leave much room for keeping rule kept files longer. (I happen to like being able to go back and see things that were not rule detected, so I have the “keep time” set long enough to let me go away for a week or so and still see those things.)

I am considering moving the main SightHound database (using the Re-direct instructions referred to above) to either the RAM drive or the SSD. The problem with moving it to the RAM drive is that a shut down without copying it to the HDD would mean the loss of all pointers to video files. The problem with moving it to the SSD is that an SSD has a limited number of write cycles and putting the database there would reduce the life of the drive and I am already concerned with how fast those limited number of writes is being eaten by putting the video files there. Still experimenting and studying it.

[flynreelow]

Thanks for the info....

But wondering why you are running some of those cameras (and webcams) at such low resolution?


Anyone else care to chime in.. Would love to know your PC specs and the number of cameras running. (resolution, etc)

[Semper Vaporo]

One of my webcams is recording a view of a remote display of a weather station on my roof... no need to take up lots of disk space when minimal resolution will do. I record this so that I can have a record of the weather (temperature, wind speed, etc.) at the time one of the other cameras records some event (How fast was the wind when the neighbor's tree blew over?... Answer: 24-MPH!) Of course, since it never has "rule saved" video, I have to get to it before the system deletes the raw video... that is one reason I have the system set to save all video for 2 weeks.

The other low rez WebCam is just an el-cheap-o that I started with and just have not replaced. The view it has is sort of redundant with one of the other cameras, but gives a better location for motion detection at a place on my driveway to tell if someone has gone past the usual area where a visitor would go. The other camera has a wider view of the driveway and would record more detail of who it is.

You need to understand, my addiction to this avocation started because I wanted to know when the mailman came!... and it has just gotten completely out of hand!

[orion44]

Attached is my server setup for Sighthound.

[flynreelow]

How many cameras?

Resolution?

Frame Rate?

24/7?

Motion, etc?

[orion44]

How many cameras?

2
Resolution?

2048x1536
Frame Rate?
20 fps - 10240 Kb/s bit rate

24/7?
yes

Motion, etc?
yes