LenovoEMC PX2-300D Network Video Recorder with Milestone Arcus VMS
by Ganesh T S on July 26, 2013 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- NAS
- IP cameras
- LenovoEMC
- NVR
Miscellaneous Factors and Final Words
The presence of a x86 processor has a negative effect on the power consumption figures (when compared against an ARM-based unit). However, such a powerful processor is necessary in order to support multiple IP cameras. In the idle state with the two Hitachi drives, the unit consumed around 27.29 W on an average. When recording two standard definition streams from the AXIS M1031-W cameras with the disks in RAID-1 configuration, the power consumption was around 27.37 W. The unit continued to operate well even when one of the disks was removed (degraded RAID-1). In this case, the unit consumed 20.56 W. Recoding during RAID rebuild consumed 29.73 W on an average. The rebuild time for the 2 TB Hitachi drive was 8h 16m.
Coming to the business end of the review, I will make it easier for readers by listing out the pros and cons of the unit.
Pros:
- Simple and easy to get the unit up and running
- Robust and reliable compared to the competition at similar price points
- Excellent mobile interface
Cons:
- Desktop browser interface needs uplift and more features to achieve parity with what is offered by the competition at similar price points
- Camera compatibility list needs to expand to cover low to mid-range IP cameras such as the Compro units
In this particular situation, the pros outweigh the cons, particularly for fresh SMB / SOHO installations where the choice of IP cameras hasn't already been made. LenovoEMC suggests that the PX2 and PX4 NVR units can be used where the number of cameras to be managed is 20 or less. The PX2-300D NVR with two enterprise HDDs and four camera licenses costs $999. Each additional camera license is expected to cost around $70. The additional license cost is similar to most other professional NVR camera licenses. Software updates to the VMS are available for one year from purchase of the camera license.
Consumers who have already purchased the non-NVR version of the PX2-300D can download a 30-day two camera demo license provided the firmware has been upgraded to Lifeline 4.0 or later. LenovoEMC also provides a 16-channel analog encoder PCIe card accessory for scenarios involving analog cameras. The pricing for this accessory card is yet to be determined.
Obviously, the PX2-300D NVR version can also be used as a standalone NAS. However, we haven't touched upon that aspect in this review. We will be providing benchmark figures for the PX2-300D in one of the upcoming 2-bay NAS reviews.
There are advantages and disadvantages to developing a VMS solution in-house vs. outsourcing it to a experienced third-party such as Milestone. With Milestone Arcus in the PX2-300D NVR, we believe LenovoEMC has taken the right approach to quickly bring a highly recommendable product to the market.
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Duckhunt2 - Sunday, February 16, 2014 - link
No you are all wrong. You bolt a heat sink with fins onto the gun safe and get some thermal grease. You do not have to drill right through the skin. Just a 1\4inch and tap it and put in bolts to hold the heat sink. Make sure it is making as much contact as possible.Then internally you have to cut/machine some steel to make a good contact for the heat sink on the motheboard to make contact with the skin of the gunsafe. It is alot of mucking around. It has been done here in the USA many years ago. USA USA. American know-how exported around the world.
cmart - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
I'm no physicist, but in practice if you cool the outside of a safe (or any hollow container) you essentially cool the inside. If the safe -- think of it as a large heat sink -- is in a cool room, the interior should stay reasonably cool with only one device running in it.Dentons - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Most modern computer systems are designed to be cooled by convection. This is why placing a computer in a sealed cabinet can cause it to overheat, even when the outer cabinet is in an otherwise cool environment.What would happen if you put a small computer in a large insulated cooler? Even if the computer only gave off a small amount of heat, it would continually produce ever more heat. Eventually, the inside temperature of the cooler would reach a very high temperature, even if the cooler were located inside a cool room.
It's no different with a safe. A large metal safe with fire insulation is little different from an insulated cooler. A few bolt holes in the bottom would be very unlikely to provide adequate convection currents.
There are some systems designed for use without air cooling, but they are generally expensive industrial systems. There are a few ways this might be successfully accomplished. One is by the installation of fans and cooling ducts, but such might reduce the fire resistance. Another might be to attach heat pipes directly from the system's CPU to the wall of the safe. Either could be finicky and perhaps unreliable.
Placing any consumer level system within an unventilated safe is probably a bad idea.
Duckhunt2 - Sunday, February 16, 2014 - link
Again, you can put a temperature control on the outside and it could turn off the power to the computer and sound an alarm. There are so many possibilities. There are computers in strong boxes and all these things written about have been overcome. Some of the longest living computers are built inside strong boxes .mamun - Saturday, August 3, 2013 - link
Need to details to my mail. mamunv6@gmail.comDocNo - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
And if you haven't heard of them, be sure to check out Ubiquity's AirVision cameras. The system isn't perfect, has some gaps (no IR/nightvision, outdoor camera is wimpy, limited number of cameras) but if your needs are covered by their existing cameras the NVR software they provide is pretty nice considering it's free with the cameras. And if you have the need for a handful of AP's, their UniFi managed wifi system is also really hard to beat for the price. Again, not perfect but amazing for the price.tweakert12 - Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - link
Maybe an old article, so I doubt anyone will read this, but I've had great succes with Mirasys. A lot cheaper and works pretty much the same way. I bought it at https://www.rrb-security.nl . It's sort of an underdog VMStiffanywalls - Monday, November 2, 2020 - link
Intel Atom D525 (2C/4T, 1.80 GHz) - great processor. Two multiple cameras is good for me on my workplace at https://customwriteonline.com/, where i have a lot of conferences.