Advise on setup around 10K to spend

A NUC is conveniently small but expensive relative to a bog std tower PC, depends if the compact size is an issue

I use a standard tower with i7, 7700, 3,3 ghz, 16 GB RAM on Win 10. It runs everything including my Dev system, SQL Server etc . Never a Blip it just runs …

Win 10 allows you to run just about anything , ROCK is Roon only (what about images and video ?)

It has 4 x 4TB HDD and a 250 SSD , & CD/BD Drive so its sort of half way between a PC a NAS and an HTPC

It is nowhere near my listening position a it is noisy but it also covers all my Video needs too. Everything by ethernet.

There are loads of small form factor PC motherboards too if you need something smaller

Just and alternative view

2 Likes

I notice that there are lots of suggestions that a Nucleus + is the way to go, or a similarly specced PC. As far as we know, there is no suggestion that the user will want to use more than one or two endpoints, and his budget would suggest that he wants good sound quality, which probably means using little or no DSP. So why the Nucleus + or equivalent when a regular Nucleus should be perfectly adequate? Is it just because the healthy 10k budget suggests he can afford it?
I would even go so far as to suggest that if you really need the full capabilities of the N+ you will be making it work hard, potentially generating more electrical noise that might affect sound quality, especially if used with a directly attached USB DAC. So maybe a networked solution would be preferable if this is the case.

I expect that it’s the 15,000 CDs that he wants to store that pushes the recommendation to the Nucleus+ rather than the Nucleus… See the specs.

3 Likes

Yes we are not looking for amp and speakers he already has that covered

Build an Intel NUC, then have enough left over for a Denafrips Terminator Plus fed by a Denafrips Gaia.

1 Like

Jeeeeez! That’s insane! I wonder if Roon is clever enough to figure out which albums you’ll never have time to listen to. :grimacing:

4 Likes