Possible Cheap DVR Server Alternative

Channels DVR Server
#1

If anyone is familiar with Ubiquiti, they have a 50% promo code on their Protect NVR right now for people who own the EOL Unifi video equipment. At $150 (after coupon) it is a very nice 1U rackmount case with 4x3.5" HDD bays.

I've seen in the past that is it relatively simple to install Debian on these. The CPU is a Cortex-A57 with 4GB DDR4. As similar as this is to the Pi 4, could it run the Pi boot image? @tmm1

If anyone wanted a single drive option in a nice clean form factor, they also make the Cloudkey G2 Plus with a 1TB HDD pre-installed for $200. It runs Debian with a APQ8053 8 Core and 3 GB RAM.

Protect NVR:

UNVR-4_Front_Angle_941e8fc0-0b91-4df6-aa70-12819f8b276a_grande
UNVR-4_Front_Angle_941e8fc0-0b91-4df6-aa70-12819f8b276a_grande600×600 115 KB

Cloudkey G2 Plus
UCK-G2-PLUS_Left_Angle_f7e37f50-6e3f-403a-a6b1-45e4a8276d5a_grande
UCK-G2-PLUS_Left_Angle_f7e37f50-6e3f-403a-a6b1-45e4a8276d5a_grande600×600 25.5 KB

#2

Not sure where the coupon shows up ... when I'm logged in to the UI store with my UI account, it still shows a $299 price.

Also, while it may have an aarch64 capable processor, it will not run the RPi4 images. It may run the aarch64 builds of the server, but only with a capable OS, of which I doubt Ubiquiti will supply. (They are tragically slow to update their Debian base images, and lag behind other EOL situations from their supporting software, such as their previous reliance on EOL MongoDB versions.)