The system requirements say, “SSD boot drive” Do they really mean boot? I boot my systems off of relatively small SSDs, primarily because they boot faster. Once they’re up, the kernel has what it needs in memory and I keep plenty of memory, believe me. Unfortunate circumstances make the most convenient system for me to host Roon core on an i3-2100 with 16GB and a spinning boot drive. It would be painful and uncertain for me to bolt an SSD onto it. I could also run core on a XenServer VM hosted on an i7-5820. My preference is the 13. Anyone have experience with spinning vs SSD for Roon core? Any advice?
At work, I have my Roon core running on a late 2012 iMac (2.9 GHz i5) with a 1 TB 7200 rpm spinning HD. It’s slower to load the database than my MacBook Pro that has a 1 TB SSD, but it’s definitely usable. Once the library loads, I don’t notice slowdowns searching for tracks or albums, nor do I have any issues with playback (just PCM, up to 96kHz 24bit, based on my output devices). Prior to the 1.3 update, I had to wait up to 20 minutes for the library to load when I started the application, but that is down to a minute or 2 at the very most. So, overall, for me with my simple set up, a spinning drive does not detract from the experience.
Thanks, Kevin. Heck, back in the day, I waited 45 minutes for my Dyanco Pas to warm up. I’ll go with what I have and figure out the upgrade later.
Wait…you run Roon core at work? Got any openings? 
I spend a fair amount of time in an office by myself. So, I can play music. I’m probably not supposed to install software like Roon on my desktop at work, but they don’t lock me down, so I run whatever I need/want to on my iMac to get my job done. Including Roon! Keeps me sane! Sorry, no openings right now!