Hello all,
I am currently running Roon legacy on an old laptop running Windows. I am thinking of getting a NUC or similar to run Roon Rock on. I am not that technical so apologies in advance if I am asking stupid questions, but is it possible for me to install Roon legacy on a NUC? I would prefer to continue with legacy as it has all the features I require.
In terms of the NUC I get, what are the specifications I should aim for in terms of getting a good user experience? i3/i5/i7? How much memory? I was planning on plugging a usb drive into the NUC as I currently am doing this with the laptop? Will I be able to just plug in the same drive into the NUC, or will the format be different as the operating system would change? Maybe I am better off getting a NUC with Windows installed instead? Is the user experience much the same between Windows and Rock anyway?
Another question - should the NUC be fanless? I will have the core shut in a cupboard anyway so fan noise shouldnât be too much of an issue, but obviously the quieter the better. Also if fanless is there a greater fire risk?
I donât think so. Itâs another Windows machine to manage.
The Roon experience when using the remotes is the same. Generally, ROCK is different in a good way: You install it and thatâs the end of any maintenance you have to do. It has just a very basic admin interface in a web browser, no other user interface.
IMHO itâs preferable because there are no fans to clean. I have a Cirrus7 nimbini and itâs been flawless for 2+ years. I turned it on once and since then it occasionally rebooted for updates, thatâs it. It comes completely ready, just Roon to be installed.
No. The NUC will shut down when it gets too hot anyway, and that wonât happen with any competently designed fanless case. In a regular NUC with fans, the fans can also fail
Generally, read the ROCK guide:
When moving your existing library to ROCK, follow this guide:
Since you are starting a new ROCK machine, why would you stay on V1.8? Legacy wonât be supported forever and then you will have to go thru a bunch of sh*t to move off V1.8 and onto V2.0.
To install Legacy on a new ROCK is really a bad idea. Legacy is only for people who have an OS that is too old to run V2.0.
As long as your can run V2.0 on any machine or phone/tablet that has to access Roon, then youâre GTG. You donât have to use any new features of V2.0, if you donât wantâŠ
I understand this view, however from what I have read there are some changes in V2.0 that I donât like. These are:
Need an internet connection constantly if Roon is to work.
Canât turn off Arc - as I understand it (and I am not a techie so may have this wrong) one has to disable UPnP on the router to stop Roon opening ports. I really donât want to have to worry about such things to stop something I wonât use anyway.
I imagine you are correct about support for 1.8, but even if it isnât supported I am hoping it will continue to work. Is this not the case, will it actually stop working?
Indeed @xxx has a good point that downgrading to 1.8 Legacy on a latest-generation ROCK might not be the best idea. I suppose that Legacy might not have the latest Linux kernel / hardware drivers. But you can try. Perhaps best get a NUC11 because the CPU in the NUC12 might require very new Linux kernel features (as it has different slow and fast cores).
However, I donât really know. Itâs also possible that Roon upgraded the kernel in 1.8 Legacy and itâs just Roon Server thatâs the legacy version. Maybe @support can say for sure?
Ok, maybe I am wrong then. I thought Arc was enabled by default, but if it has to be enabled then I must have misunderstood. I am not anti new features or anything, I think most people like it which is great, its just I have no use for it and donât have the IT knowhow to go around disabling things that are potential security risks and carry no benefit to my own use of Roon.
Thanks. I think I read this in some other discussion but I understood that when Roon was rebooted it changed the 0 port back to a valid port and tried opening it again. Again I probably got it wrong as donât know how these things work.
Hm actually thatâs said in the very link I posted and apparently confirmed there by @Wes. I didnât know. I wonder why they left the edit in the thread title if thatâs the case though.
Oh well, in any case you can just turn off UPnP on the router. Not that it matters for Roon really, but if it makes you sleep better. Or use 1.8 provided that it works on new NUCs
Turn off UPNP on your router if you are concerned about it since other devices might attempt to use UPNP; so if you are concerned you should have it turned off on your router. I personally, turn UPNP off and to use ARC had to setup a manual port forwarding rule.
Now, if UPNP is turned off, all that will happen is Roon goes âUpnp?â to the router, the router says âNoâ. End of story.
So turning off UPnP on the router will stop Roon from setting up Arc? Great, sounds like that might be ok then, as just checked my router and seems like it is just a simple setting to turn it off. Just another question or two :). Does Roon âremindâ users that havenât set up Arc that they might want to? I hate such pop ups. Seems unlikely but best to check.
Other than this, I think that the only other major thing that is in V2.0 that isnât in 1.8 is some equalisation settings called muse? I think this is set to off by default? If so that isnât anything to worry about so maybe ok to upgrade (apart from the constant internet thing). Is 2.0 generally stable now?
I would go ROCK 2.0 , even with a constant internet connection , 1.8 is still going BUT no developer will keep a legacy build going for ever
I would also go for an internal drive rather than USB , its a nice compact unit. You donât say how many tracks but a laptop 2tb drive HDD will fit or up to 8 Tb SSD
I went windows to ROCK 9 months ago , 10i7, 32 GB RAM (Too much maybe) and a 4TB SSD, havenât touched it since !!
Hello! I bought NUC11 on i5 and put ROCK. Version 1.8 works fine on it. RAM is better to immediately put 16GB. It is better to take NUC from the recommended ones on two disks and install an internal SSD for 4-8TB for Music. NUC11 i5 is far superior in performance to the current Nucleus Plus, I speak as its former owner. It is not worth changing the original case to a fanless case, it works perfectly and silently even under heavy load, upsampling in DSD, DSP processing âŠ
You can also just have two dedicated machines and switch between them should you wish.
I have a v1.8 as a backup ready for whenever I need. I keep a duplicate of music which I update every now and then. I just sign in to it and authorise it and then switch back later.
If youâre using the NUC with a direct USB connection to a DAC, then maybe it makes sense. If youâre just using the NUC for Roon core as a network device and can keep it elsewhere, fanless is overrated and expensive IMO.
Donât store any nitroglycerin on the heat sink, youâll be fine.
A couple of extra comments, I have a NUC and the fan is totally inaudible in operation, other than startup. As a very experienced electronic tech, putting any computing device in a cupboard is a bad idea. Increased heat = reduced reliability. Good ventilation is important if you go fanless. Cooler is always better. A NUC running ROON Rock is much preferable to a Windows operating system; sounds better and less maintenance. An i3 NUC is adequate for most users unless you are running a very large local library or using some of the more advanced features of ROON. Also an i3 is lower power usage than an i5 or an i7 and hence more suited to passive cooling, especially in an environment with minimal ventilation.
