Intel Nuc i7 10th gen / Roon Rock

DUVET

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Ok who has been down this path. The Nucleus + is going back on Monday and the review will follow. The next step it try to the DIY route . I will purchase this from eBay . Suggestions for rams and internal storage and was it easy to set up . I will use this purely as a headless server running Roon Rock .
 
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newlash09

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Ok who has been down this path. The Nucleus + is going back on Monday and the review will follow. The next step it try to the DIY route . I will purchase this from eBay . Suggestions for rams and internal storage and was it easy to set up . I will use this purely as a headless server running Roon Rock .
Below was my configuration when I was running roon core :

1. Mac mini headless - 256 gb ssd + 1 TB hdd + i7 + 16gb DDR3 ram + uptone audio dc kit + uptone LPS 1.2 ( Placed on a atomic Labs damping stand).
2. If doing it today, I would install roon core on a innuos zen and add a Sotm iso cat7 passive isolator before the eternet Input of the roon end point.
3. I would connect the zen via coax or USB to my dac, and use innuos sense for superior sound quality when needed.
 
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lazycat

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If I may ask.

Why bother with a headless system? Is it to avoid having a laptop/computer on all the time?

I've been running Roon and library from a variety of laptops for the past 4/5 years without any difficulty.

Just wondering why add another piece of kit.
 
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DomT

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If I may ask.

Why bother with a headless system? Is it to avoid having a laptop/computer on all the time?

I've been running Roon and library from a variety of laptops for the past 4/5 years without any difficulty.

Just wondering why add another piece of kit.
One reason could be compatibility. I don’t know if you can use Roon without updating it but having a version that always works without forced upgrades is appealing to some. I tried out ProTools briefly years ago and as I only had one computer at the time one app required a system upgrade and that upgrade wasn’t compatible with ProTools. I abandoned ProTools and continued with tape.
 

DUVET

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If I may ask.

Why bother with a headless system? Is it to avoid having a laptop/computer on all the time?

I've been running Roon and library from a variety of laptops for the past 4/5 years without any difficulty.

Just wondering why add another piece of kit.

From recent experience the sound quality is better . There I said it .
“Run Forest Run “
 

JamieMcC

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From recent experience the sound quality is better . There I said it .
“Run Forest Run “

Yep and as I've posted previously

"Something to consider, probably over 90 percent of those running a Roon Rock system ran Roon via a home pc or laptop before making the move to a more dedicated set up. I don't think I've ever seen anyone advocating swapping back to a home pc/laptop based set up from a dedicated Rock set up."
 

lazycat

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Yep and as I've posted previously

"Something to consider, probably over 90 percent of those running a Roon Rock system ran Roon via a home pc or laptop before making the move to a more dedicated set up. I don't think I've ever seen anyone advocating swapping back to a home pc/laptop based set up from a dedicated Rock set up."
I have to admit it is streamed to my sotm streamer. I didnt make that clear.

I did wonder about the difference between using the laptop and a dedicated server.

If it sounds better, fair enough.
 

Edward

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I run Roon Core on a Windows xeon machine (which are available widely on the used server market). The machine does other duties such as a home file backup storage, Plex server, VMs etc.
Machine does not act as a Roon end point.

Plenty of processing power for Roon dsp. Never missed a beat (several years and counting). Variety of Roon end points (Pi, NUC etc). No complaint about SQ. Updating Roon on the headless xeon machine no issues, Roon prompts you to update all Roon instances when using any device that acts as a Roon controller (typically my 'phone).
 

DUVET

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Yep and as I've posted previously

"Something to consider, probably over 90 percent of those running a Roon Rock system ran Roon via a home pc or laptop before making the move to a more dedicated set up. I don't think I've ever seen anyone advocating swapping back to a home pc/laptop based set up from a dedicated Rock set up."
I have been running Roon core for 4 years of on my old and new Mac Air( M1 ) version . Regardless there is always stuff going on in the background . I was contemplating using a Mac Mini but the power and on off functions will have to be configured and again it will have other programs in the background . Roon is a heavy drain on the CPU and rumour has it the Mac Mini M2 is not as good in this respect . Upgrading Ram on the Mac is expensive. Ergo a brand new NUC i7 from eBay is £400 and then with a bit of up spec if you go to town you are all in at £550
Also to consider as Roxy once sang “ Nothing last forever of that I’m sure ‘. Now if anything was to happen to Roon you are left with as very expensive piece of hardware if you go down the Nucleus route . DIY , well at least I still have a computer .
 

DomT

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I must admit that I am considering Roon for the rabbit hole experience learning about connected artists. Will watch this thread with interest.

Certainly seems to make more sense buying a computer rather than a dedicated Roon device. Are you forced to accept new versions of Roon? Do the Roon updates mean that your mother board and RAM are under thread every few years as software is updated as with any commercial software that I have used (I have a 2008 iMac that works fine apart from the fact that you can’t run practically anything on it)
 

El Seano

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Similar setup to Edward here but running ubuntu as the OS as windows update always seemed to get in the way at some point and screw things up. Server is a pretty old xeon bought from someone here on the wam. It's not missed a beat and never had an issue with the roon updates. Even running fancy dsp for the audeze headphones I've not seen it use excessive cpu.

Think the i7 is likely overkill just for running Roon rock but like you said at least you have a decent pc if it stops serving as the Roon server.
 
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DUVET

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@DomT There are numerous software updates to your controllers but as in new versions of Roon these are not frequent . Think I started four years ago on 1.7 and we are only now on version 2.0 . Also i think window and apple are now part of the beta testing so there are rarely any new glitches which did happen to me once and took a month to resolve
 
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stormyuklondon1

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I went for an 11 gen i3 nuc, integral 256g hdd & an 8 gb OLOy ram stick. Absolute breeze to set up if you follow the instructions on roon. Sits in my downstairs cupboard doing its thing. All in under £400. Great bit of kit.
 

tkimages

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I moved from running Roon on my iMac (for reasons mentioned on this forum a few times) to running Roon ROCK on a NUC, i7 10th gen, 16GB RAM, 256GB M2 SSD, which I bought used from a fellow 'wammer' via the classifieds. It just sits silently with rest of the hi-fi boxes and it has performed faultlessly since getting it, updates without a fuss and will easily perform DSP functions and multi zone tasks. There was an increase in SQ when moving from iMac to Roon. 16GB ram and 256 SSD are overkill, but it was part of the package as was ROCK pre-installed so I've no idea how easy it was to install ROCK.

Hope that helps.
 
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George 47

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I ran an i5 NUC with 16G Ram, 500 Gb SSD before I upgrade to the GRIMM MU1. I used my laptop before that and it was here on the settee. The issue with that is with the Core on the laptop Roon transfers all the music through the Core so it was being sent via the wifi to the laptop and then back again.

The sound quality improved with the arrival of the NUC as that was hard-wired. The MU1 is also hard wired.
 
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peter the butcher

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I use a NUC with an i5/2TB SSD/32gig RAM. Use it to play all my music and general surfing etc, but not using Roon. No problems in 3 years
 

orbscure

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Just thinking outside the box, perhaps a WAM group build/purchase is a good way to go? There must be somebody here who could cobble together a decent NUC option... I'd certainly be interested in replacing my full sized Win 11 Server with something a little more compact for inclusive streaming...
 
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dari

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I have been running Roon core for 4 years of on my old and new Mac Air( M1 ) version . Regardless there is always stuff going on in the background . I was contemplating using a Mac Mini but the power and on off functions will have to be configured and again it will have other programs in the background . Roon is a heavy drain on the CPU and rumour has it the Mac Mini M2 is not as good in this respect . Upgrading Ram on the Mac is expensive. Ergo a brand new NUC i7 from eBay is £400 and then with a bit of up spec if you go to town you are all in at £550
I've tried running Roon on MacMini M1
and previoulsy on dedicated Intel NUC.

On Nuc (8 cores, i7) the fan was running like crazy, it was noisy, so annoying. The NUC was £700 and I was instantly looking to put it in the fanless case (another £150 to spend if I remember correctly).

On a Mac, Roon was silent no matter how many apps (including Capture One Pro processing over 100mb raw files) were running in the background.
New Mac with 16gb RAM was £800.
 

Knipester

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I bought my nuc i7 with the plan to run it as a headless roon core. I bottled the full wipe & install of rock instead I just use it as a dedicated PC core. Not turned on any features other than roon & it works superbly. I have a hdmi cable running to the Tv for updates, a chrome cast set to display the tracks playing.
 

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