Items bought new:
- ASUS H110M-E/M.2 LGA1151 DDR4 M.2 HDMI USB3.0 H110 MicroATX Motherboard ~$56
- Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2666, 16GB total ~$65
- Intel Core i7-7700, 3.6 GHz, LGA1151 socket (bought unused from a buddy for $150, woo hoo!)
- TP-Link AC1300 PCIe Wireless Wifi PCIe Card | 2.4G/5G Dual Band Wireless PCI Express Adapter - $35
Old, repurposed parts I had laying around:
- Mid-size case from a previous HP Media Center PC
- Spare 21" monitor (you can buy a similar one brand new for ~$90 or so)
- Misc fans, Keyboard, mouse, BT adapter - all surplus stuff that were just gathering dust
- 500W power supply from my son's old gaming PC (a new one would be ~$30)
So, a little over $300 for a very capable box to run ZM on.
The old PC I had running ZM would sit at a a typical load of 2.5 to 4.0. when idle.
The newly-built box running ZM sits at ~0.4 to 0.7 when idle.
I have a couple of inexpensive wifi cams to use in low-interest areas, and I'll be getting several PoE cams for the other zones. I'll probably have 6 or 7 cameras total by the time I'm done. The only other thing to buy is a PoE switch, and I'm thinking something like this will probably work just fine:
https://www.amazon.com/BV-Tech-Port-Swi ... B005GAATOG (8/9 ports) - $61
I'll buy one and see if that's enough for now. So, for under $400 I should have a pretty solid system.
I considered dropping more $$$ on a pre-built NVR/DVR system (like Hikvision or Amcrest or something similar) but I liked Zoneminder and kinda wanted to build a system myself. A few people recommended Blue Iris but I'm not a big fan of Windows, especially Win10. I do have to say that Blue Iris looks like a very good application. Too bad it's a Windows-only program.
I also had someone suggest using tinyCam and running it on an Android emulator like Remix OS Player. I've gotta admit, tinyCam is pretty nice, has lots of features and it can push to remote storage very easily. tinyCam also does very good network scanning and can take almost any camera you can throw at it. I'm tempted to try it just for fun, but I think Zoneminder will do everything I need just fine.
So, there ya have it. Comments and suggestions welcome!