Mac Mini M4 - minimum specs?

photonclock
photonclock
edited July 22 in SecuritySpy

I'm at the point where I think I need to run Security Spy on a dedicated computer vs my office computer that is used for other things. Currently have an 8 camera license, with 6 cameras in use (all set to around 8 fps), AI enabled for people/vehicles, and I'm not re-encoding the camera streams.

However, I would like to re-encode the camera streams to prores LT to facilitate faster review (scrubbing through 4K long-GOP movies sucks).

So all that said to ask this question: will a bottom of the line M4 Mac Mini handle 8 cameras with AI + re-encoding with no problems (recording will be to SSDs so I'm not concerned about I/O bottlenecks), or do I need an M4 Pro?

Comments

  • Nocko
    Nocko

    I use the smallest Mac Mini M4 for four simultaneous 1080p streams with motion-activated (AI-driven) recordings, plus four continuous recordings at the same time. There's no re-encoding involved. The highest average CPU utilization, according to daily reports, has been 3% so far. So, I don't think a faster chip is necessary. Somewhere on this site, there's also a calculation tool you can use to simulate your own setup.

    However, I would be cautious when choosing an SSD: my previous SSD (Crucial BX500) was far too slow to record four 1080p streams simultaneously. I was forced to switch to a better Samsung one.

    Check this:

    https://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/helpcalculator.html

    Seems like you can buy a few more 4k cams...😀

    Nocko!

  • nealk
    nealk

    I can't speak to the reencoding question but I'm surprised by Nocko's experience-- I'm saving 6 streams to the cheapest SSD you can get via USB3 (Fangxian,) continuous recording, and no problems. I can't imagine there's any SSD to slow for the job. I'm on a 2014 Mini.

  • photonclock
    photonclock

    That help calculator is cool. Base M4 Mini for me it shall be!

  • Ben
    Ben

    The base M4 mini is an excellent machine - @photonclock I think this will be entirely suitable for your proposed system, with room to expand in the future.

  • photonclock
    photonclock

    I've placed the order. Thank you!

  • Curtis
    Curtis

    Acasis makes an enclosure that allows the addition of two M.2 NVMe. With the M4 and 8TB, it's a total solution.

    https://www.acasis.com/collections/trending-now/products/acasis-workstation-40gbps-8-in-1-dock-ssd-enclosure-for-mac-mini-m4?variant=46791239500005

  • Ben
    Ben
    edited August 2

    The Acasis enclosure looks interesting but overlay complicated if you just need some good external storage. Many manufacturers (SanDisk, Samsung, Crucial) now produce simple and performant USB 3.2 drives at up to 8TB in size.

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