ZoneMinder Forums

I am researching replacing an existing 16 camera DVR system with one capable of 24-32 cameras. All cameras are analog. I would also like to record at 640x480 and do motion detection. I would like 5-10 fps for motion and 1 fps for full time record. From reading the forums I know these are heavy requirements.
Does anyone have experience with a system like this? For 640x480 capture with motion I will need about 100MB RAM per camera. I am thinking of a raid5 array of 750GB disks (6 disks will be 3TB). Will there be bottleneck issues with the FSB of the computer? Is AMD a better choice or will a new Intel Core 2 Duo (or quad core) system be better?
If anyone has experience or opinions on such a system please let me know.

Thanks,
the_crowbar

This sounds a lot like my setup:

Planned for 10 cameras, but knew we would end up doing more. We look to be doing 22+ cameras now. Luckily, we looked ahead and built big.

Our system: Dual Core Xeon Woodcrest 2.0Ghtz. Shortly afterward, the Quad core came out.

Defiantly, in general, more cores are better than fewer moderatly faster cores. Intel or AMD shouldn't be too big of a difference, choose what you like better.

Since you're going Analog, you'll have less load on your system than if you were to go all IP based. We went all IP, and load can easily get very high. But with proper zone management (especialy to eliminate the false positive alarms) it has become manageable.

Good luck to you and your system.

--Pathway