I hade a few older mini desktop computers at home and have now tried installing ROCK on most of them with excellent result on all of them. All of them are HP elitedesk 800 MINI in diffrent generations starting with the G2 i7 6700, G4 8500T, G5 i7 8700, G5 9500T, the T models are 35w and the other 65w. All of them was tested with the later UEFI version of ROCK OS, just disable a few otions in bios that ROCK will not use. G2 uses 1xNVME as boot disk and a SATA for storage, while G4 and G5 have option for 2xNVME disks and a 3rd SATA if you need, they all use external PSU and i had a few 230w (largest model) that use standard IEC-320 connector so use it with “SupraLoRad 2.5 CS-EU (10A)”
All my test i did was to see how good they perform upsampeling to DSD512, all did a perfect job. all above 2.0x
One extra good thing with this computer is you can replace CPU and the fan is sooooo quiet and i was never able to hear the fan under any of my tests. I find these computers very often on EBAY for a very good price, i would go for the 65w versions since they have a more powerfull CPU and prices are often the same. They are also avalible with K versions of Cpu but that i never tried, my guess is they will run more hot. but i find it a nice little computer that is an option to use Intel NUC
What did you disable in the BIOS? I have a EliteDesk 800 mini G3 that I just decommissioned from my home network. Currently using the latest intel Mac mini and am trying to decide if it’s worth the effort to go ROCK.
i can’t tell you all right now, that computer is not connected now,
but i disabled all that i thought was not needed, like wifi/bluetooth, speaker, intel tpm 2.0,intel sgx, intel txt, but i think it will work even if you leave it on… was just my own tought to better leave it off. but i used UEFI so i set “Secure boot OFF”
Yes, you can have nvme m.2 SSD for os and a second SATA 2.5" for storage, not all G3 comes with the internal SATA disk holder option but connector is on motherboard so can be fitted afterwards.
@Peter_Wallin thanks for your reply.
If I am not wrong in reading the specs, you can also use a 3.5 HDD, right?
anyway, but i’m not a big fan of using an external USB3 HD solution. so basically i am planning to move my actual roon library HDD (3.5, 14TB) from a PC desktop to this mini PC (or similar).
For 2 reasons:
the PC desktop is not really very energy saving… and in the last months i’ve seen my energy bills DOUBLED…
i want to move the core machine near the HIFI stuffs… so i can use HDMI for multichannel playback (now i have to add/remove a long HDMI cable every time).
I don’t think I’ve seen an EliteDesk G3 without the drive cage, but I have only put my hands on a few of them. I thought it was ProDesk versions that didn’t have them unless ordered with an internal drive.
Mine was a off-the-shelf model with only a 256GB m.2 drive, but still had the cage. What I did have a hard time finding, at least in 2019, was the correct drive screws. They’re HP part number 511945-005 for anyone looking, and they’re now easy to find on eBay for a lot less than what I paid.
Mine is a 7th gen i5-7500T, 8GB RAM with Win10 pro. It’s been upgraded to 16GB RAM and a 4TB Samsung 860 EVO SSD. I also have a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO m.2 drive for it that I never installed.
Hardest part is finding the time to mess with it. I need to get it out of the rack and get it on the bench.
Besides upsampling performance what is far more interesting is if you could tell something about the difference in handling speed. What is the difference in loading albums, loading Roon’s “homepage”, speed in search etc. How much difference is there between the G2 snd G5?
In my G5 i use 2x NVME (samsung 980 pro) and the G2 can only handle 1xNVME ssd so i use a 2tb SATA SSD (samsung 870 evo) for storage in that one, there might be maybe a small advantage for the G5 but not anything i felt disturbing… memory speed is G2 2133mhz and G5 2666mhz also an advantage for the G5… but i use the 65w (not any T or U) version of CPU in both G2 I7-6700 and G5 I7-8700. the loading/searching was for me not any remarable diffrence, just during DSP use and upsampling. and i have 1Gbit/s both up/down might also have an impact on that speed you talk about.
The speed I am talking about is the responsiveness or the snappyness of the system. Thanks for your answer, saves me an investment for the next few years to come
That speed was no noticable difference to me, but i notice its more responsive then i use roon remote (windows 10/11) from a pc connected with ethernet or a pc tablet (wifi) compared to using my phone (wifi/android)
I built the boot thumb drive, blew out the dust, but can’t find my DisplayPort to HDMI cable. I ordered an HDMI card and I’m going to remove the wireless adapter. I don’t think I’m going to install the 1TB m.2 - seems like a waste.
ok, yes 1TB for OS disk is a waste i think, i have 256gb and i think that is too much even… you can also disable the M2 port for bluetooth/wifi in bios if you not will use the card for some other computer…
Done. Painless. My only complaints are the HP doesn’t look as nice sitting on the equipment rack as the space gray mini and I can faintly hear the fan. What’s really messing with my head at the moment is there is a perceivable improvement in SQ. I’m playing the same tracks back-to-back. DAC is a Marantz 30n connected via USB. I’m trying to convince myself that I’m imagining it, but as someone once told me - “trust your ears”.
Really like that my old Apple SuperDrive is plug-and-play. I’ve been wanting to re-rip all my CDs again.
