You could try it with an i3, but, my earlier comment still stands as I believe in having headroom for future growth.
Thanks for your answer.
This is totally understandable, but since this is not going to be doing multitasking tasks of movies and ROON (only one of those at a time - I will be the only one using it) it will be easier to build something cheap that can handle this load.
I found this solution you’re mentioning quite nice, but now I am on a budget and what I would would be a system that will not break the bank and that it will be power efficient. So, building two systems right now isn’t the best solution for me.
So, the question is, besides the single point of failure, which is a risk that I will have to take, is there any other important limiting factor to have those on the same system?
I like the 2 system setup that a lot of you guys are recommending, but this is currently not an option but I appreciate the feedback and it might be the way to go for the future.
I run my Roon server on an Atom based QNAP NAS TS-453Be to be exact.
This is a 4 core Celeron J3455 CPU.
I upgraded the RAM to 16GB with two 8GB memory sticks.
I installed 3 x 10TB SATA drives in Raid 5 for all my main network storage (20TB available after Raid 5 and allows 1 drive to fail without losing data)
I Installed 2 x 4TB SATA SSDs (Samsung 870 EVO) in the last slot using the QDA-A2AR adapter. These are in Raid 1 and allows 1 drive to fail without losing data but does only yield 4GB off SSD storage.
The above adapter allows you to configure the two drives as a mirror so if I lose one but does lose you 1/2 the capacity. If money is a concern you could use 2 x 1TB SSD
The two different storage types are created as /data and /ssd.
Now for Roon I store all my library (mostly FLAC Rips) on the hard disk /data
The Roon database however is on the SSD.
With this setup I see no lag or delay. The QNAP can even be upgraded to Multi Gig network if needed and the storage @20TB is more than enough for all my storage needs not just Roon. Other performance sensitive items can go to SSD and data unhungry items lite media to the HDD.
It is worth pointing out that Roon has native support for QNAP so you can download the Roon binary from the QNAP app store and run it that way.
Finally a word or warning. QNAP has had a constant battle with security patches. While this is not a massive issue if you keep it up to date NEVER NEVER NEVER expose your QNAP or any other storage appliance directly to the internet even by port forwarding. Make sure it is always on the private side of your home network.
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If I would need a new one, I would probably goo for TS-410E 
fanless cooling
Well ■■■■■ I wrote that post one day to soon.
With todays announcement of Roon ARC I am no longer sure that running on the QNAP is a good idea.
The problem is you have to open up the Roon Core port to the internet for ARC to work and having that port land on the single most important (as in contains all my important files) machine seems like a really bad idea.
I will test it out but I am going to need to know a lot more about ARC before I trust it even though this is a feature I have been waiting for for years.
If my Roon Core was on another host I could put that in a DMZ and secure from the rest of my network.
@David_Halliday - Good point - have the same concerns. I only have music and video on my NAS - other files are on another computer. Please post your findings I really want to use Roon ARC