Actual power usage of Roon Core?

[TSX (Ego audite ergo sum)]

Hi,

For some time now, I’ve been using a NUC 5i5RYH w. 8GB ram and M2 SSD for Roon Core. It’s been working as dependable as you can expect from a computer, and I’ve not encountered any hiccups. Just for fun, a few weeks ago, I plugged the NUC into a power-meter I found in a drawer. It says 3.5-4W pr. hour. I have a spare Mac mini M1 8Gb ram basemodel. I tried to install Roon on it (just as it was, no fresh OSX install), and used that for the Core for a few weeks. The power usage is a hair under 2W per hour, and it’s just as solid in my experience. The main reason I tried the M1 id because my NUC is kinda noisy. I tried to take it apart and clean the cooler, but it’s still quite loud in my opinion. The M1 is as silent as a rock (no pun intended). I know I can get fantless cases for the NUC, but they are quite expensive, and even more important (to me) many of them are not to my liking design wise. I think I’ve read that the NUC platform has been discontinued, so it would make not much sense to buy into new NUC hardaware, if that’s the case.

Anyway. I 'm curious to know how much power does you Roon Core / Roon server draw in actual use?

Thanks

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

Some data here and in other older threads:

Roon not very green/wastes lots of CPU when not in use

I track the energy draw from my Intel NUC with Roon on. This is on Ubuntu 22.04 but not sure that’s entirely relevant here. As a software engineer myself I’m particularly keen on things not wasting CPU. I’m perfectly fine with Roon drawing whatever it needs when music is playing or doing housekeeping like backups. I’m cool with it spending a bit of time doing checking on your connected music services. My issue is that it seems to continually keep rescanning files, even when there are perfectly…

[Martin_Webster]

@TSX

The main reason I tried the M1 id because my NUC is kinda noisy. I tried to take it apart and clean the cooler, but it’s still quite loud in my opinion.

If you hear the fan during normal use, then the NUC isn’t running right. It’s unclear if you completely stripped down the NUC to clean the fan. However, if there’s lots of dust, the fan can become noisy, and quite possibly causing bearing wear, with the fan rubbing.

This can sometimes be fixed by deep cleaning and using a light lubricant. Hower, a new fan is the best fix, and these are inexpensive.

Incidently, the NUC isn’t discontinued; Intel stopped manufacturing and they’re now built by ASUS.

[Andrew_Beveridge (Andy B)]

Your NUC 5i5RY can draw as little as about 10 Watts at idle.
It can be up to about 35-40 Watts when all cores busy but that is not likely to happen running RoonServer.

The M1 mini will be about 7 Watts so not a huge difference. It is probably mostly quieter because of better power management and better ventilation design and maybe more expensive components (Apple build quality is generally very good but then you would hope so at Apple prices).

That is just power in Watts. There is no per hour.

Most cheap power meters are pretty inaccurate at these low power levels too.