V6 Specification Sheet and Machine Recommendation...

schneideris

I went to the main page for Security Spy and then to Features. At the bottom there is a link to the PDF for specifications: SecuritySpy Specifications Datasheet. This points to the V5 document though so wondering if there is a newer version.

What I was actually trying to get to was a minimal machine recommendation so that I could determine if upgrading to 6 from 5 with my Mac Mini 2018 with Intel i5 would still work with 8 cameras or if I should consider upgrading the machine?

Ben

Sorry, we haven't yet updated this document - we will do so soon!

The tool to use is the calculator. But, I can tell you that version 6 will not use more of the Mac's resources than version 5, so if your v5 system was running smoothly then your v6 system should run at least as smoothly – perhaps even more smoothly due to the many small performance improvements in the new version.

schneideris

thanks Ben,

Dang, I was looking for a good excuse to upgrade the old dog. ;-)

Does go to show how long we can run these older boxes when the developers focus on writing good clean code. Thanks and keep up the great work.

Ben

Perhaps you could find some other excuse :)

Thanks for your comments! Yes, these 2018 minis are still good machines. We do try to keep SecuritySpy running well on as wide a range of Macs as possible, allowing users to set up systems inexpensively using older hardware.

Marty

Ben, I have settled on running SecuritySpy on an external 4TB nvme drive in an enclosure. BlackMagic shows the internal drives speed at about 6,000 Mbs. The external drive is just a little under 1,000 Mbs. Will such be sufficient with reading and writing the video files, or should I instead store on the internal drive? All seems to be fine with the external drive, but I wanted to make sure the system is not "struggling" with the slower external speeds.

Thanks, Marty

schneideris

@Marty, I can tell you that I am writing to my NAS across the network at ~150MB/s (also reported by Blackmagic) with the occasional network blip being reported. My setup is 6 cameras with a few duplicates and 4 being 4K. Your frame rate is likely where you would tune to what is going to work as the higher the frame rate the more bandwidth you would likely consume. I suspect the external is fine.

What I would suggest though is to be careful on what external connection you are making. My past experience with USB-C based drives was not as stable as it is with Thunderbolt 3 or newer. Thunderbolt is more expensive but the specifications are that much stricter and it was able to sustain the connection with the computer. The USB-C drives though would have a habit of disconnecting and reconnecting every once in a while and that in the middle of a file transfer could be problematic. It may have been the ones I was testing but if you run into the issue it is something to note.

Marty

@schneideris thanks much for the reply and help. I have the external NVME connected via the Thunderbolt 4 port on the back of the MacStudio, not the USB-C on the front. Perhaps the enclosure is limiting the speed of the drive. Here is the drive I purchased:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CHGT1KFJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Here is the enclosure. Perhaps you, or Ben, or someone could suggest a better enclosure for the drive.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RVC6F9Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I really appreciate the feedback and help. And would greatly welcome any suggestions as to a better enclosure or better way to use this 4TB NVME drive.

Marty

schneideris

It looks like the enclosure is your weakest link. It states "At up to 1000MB/s" which is a difference of Mbps (bits) and MB/s (bytes). Note as well that the enclosure is listed as a USB-C 3.2 spec, not Thuderbolt. The drive claims (and I would think is true) to be "read and write speeds up to 7450/6900 MB/s" so it is being held back.

There are USB-4 encloses reported, and I don't know anything about them. It would appear that they handle 4x the throughput.

The reality is that what you have should work perfectly fine. I would just try it and see if the enclosure works without error. The drive itself will definitely be fine. If the enclosure does not cut it then return and get a USB-4 to try or bite the bullet and spend extra for Thunderbolt 4 specific enclosure. Note that many USB-C enclosures will say "Thunderbolt compatible" which does not mean that they are Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt on your Studio box is compatible with USB-C so any other then closures will work with it, just not as good as a proper Thunderbolt enclosure.

Marty

@schneideris thanks so much for taking a look. I had theorized that the enclosure was the bottleneck. Thus far there have been no errors whatsoever so it should work just fine but I might take a look at getting a full thunderbolt enclosure. Thanks again. I really appreciate it.

schneideris

Your quite welcome.

It was interesting looking on Amazon that there were no pure, single port, Thunderbolt 4 enclosures. A lot of USB-4 though that claim the same as Thunderbolt 4 (but I would still verify). With any enclosure you are going to have to look for the throughput rating to know what to truly expect. The cheaper stuff is typically cheaper for a reason.

Marty

You are very correct. The $29 enclosure works well, but I'm really cutting down the speed of the NVME. But, I've had zero errors and the drive runs cool. That is one advantage of a slower enclosure. If I start getting errors, I'll get another enclosure.

Again, I greatly appreciate the feedback and good advice.