Beginner performance questions

[Andyrh]

As above everyone has their own experience.
My first ZM server was a gen 1 i3 (4 threads) and it ran 2x 3mp cameras with modect fine. I added a 5mp camera and found the end of that CPU.
I upgraded to a gen 2 i7 (8 threads) and added 2 cameras. Current camera list: 2x 3mp, 3x 5mp and 1x 8mp running 10FPS for the "little" ones and 8FPS for the big ones. I boot off of an old SSD and write video to 4 SW RAID 5 drives.
All of the cameras do modect. Idle CPU is little over 2.0, I have seen it get busy at over 6.0 and I assume it has maxed out the system. Typically when it is raining I will see the 8mp camera drop a frame from time to time.
A RAID card is in the future to remove that work from the CPU.
I would expect to be able to add 2 or 3 cameras before running out of CPU. For my use that is plenty.

Ubuntu 18.04 Server
ZM 1.34.16
i7-2700k @ 3.5Ghz
16GB RAM
SSD boot
spinning SW RAID 5 video storage