I have Roon running on a tower PC with big drives connected to LAN. I am thinking of buying a network end point like Sonore Ultra Rendu. Would there be any benefit in this case to use ROCK vs. a tower PC which I already own? I have a monitor on the PC in my office next door to my media room. Even if I put the media over to a true SAN (Synology) I could still use the tower PC as Core.
Or are there benefits to using a ROCK for CORE vs. a spare i7/SSD tower PC?
I have read that a big tower PC isn’t the best sound for direct connection to HiFi but in this case it’s just on the LAN and the network device is connected to HiFi.
Rock is simpler to maintain as it’s automatic no os rubbish to worry about and its written to have roon run as effeciently as possible. However its designed and written with A 7th gen Intel NuC in mind so outside of this it may or may not work. If your using another networked device such as ultrrendu then it really should make no difference to SQ if that’s where going.
Actually, if the Core runs without problems right now on the Tower and doesn’t bother you (maintenance, noise, space) I’d stick with it for the time being. When the Tower needs replacement you can still buy a supported NUC and put ROCK on it or go for a Nucleus or whatever the market will offer then. As Simon says: sound wise you should be on the safe side with a networked streamer.
Your Tower is probably also a good enough file server so you won’t really need to get a NAS. If you replace the Tower with a NUC and add a NAS there’s probably not much energy saving left anyway. And ROCK prefers directly attached storage so a NAS is only good for backup (database, audio files) from the ROCK p.o.v.
(Not counting in unnecessary (toxic) waste prematurely disposed electronic devices generate; that often ruins the improved energy foot print new devices promise on paper…)
Thanks! I did not know ROCK prefers direct attach storage. I was originally thinking of NAS+ROCK & Networked Streamer and use the Tower as a deskside PC.
It seems I should keep my tower HTPC with big internal drives which is currently running Roon as a trial from my deskside. I can put it back in the closet, run HDMI thru the wall to pre/pro in media room for multi-channel music and movies. i can add a networked streamer for stereo vs current USB connect for better stereo sound.
Control would be my laptop which can remote desktop into HTPC for maintenance. I have been running JRiver and use remote desktop from my laptop to HTPC to play movies and music with Jriver on the HTPC. I use Emby for video.
It’s easier to monitor in real time. NAS folders are more difficult in this regard. If real time monitoring isn’t too important or one can live with initiating scans manually there’s no other downside to NAS shares I think.
I will stay with my tower PC with 5 big internal drives. I do need to rethink my backup which currently backing up to external drives with 3rd copy off site. I don’t have enough space to do more than a copy plus incrementals before needing to erase the copy and start over.
My ROCK and a Synology NAS are on a small 5-port netgear 1000 Base-T switch. This is connected via a Linksys AV2 powerline ethernet, on the other side is a second 5-port netgear switch. Connected to the switch are KEF LS50Ws. Works like a charm, have never had issues.