It’s really easy to order whatever SSD you want from Amazon and install it in 5 minutes. Not everybody wants a 2TB SSD. I went with a 1TB and that’s more than I need.
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It’s the lack of processing power. It runs Roon just fine. It plays DSD 64 files just fine. It’s the combination of DSD 64 files and convolution filters that bog it down. Mac Mini 3.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i7* 16 GB Ram
It doesn’t, they’re DSF files.
It’s true, not everyone wants a 2TB SSD: https://theithut.com/samsung-pm883-2-5-7680-gb-serial-ata-iii-v-nand-tlc-mz7lh7t6hmla-00005
Been reading up on the upcoming Tiger Lake, aka Gen 11 , I think if I was in a market for a laptop ( or NUC), I would probably wait for it’s wide spread release.
I didn’t read this whole thread but skimming it I did not find this mentioned.
Laptops have batteries and they are part of the thing that makes them work. You used to be able to remove the battery but not anymore on 99.9% of laptops. Batteries have a “health” and, as such, they like to be exercised. Depending on the chemistry of the battery, that could mean full charge / discharge cycles or half charge / discharge cycles. But what you want to try and avoid is leaving the machine plugged in and hovering at fully charged all day every day. That’s just not healthy for the battery and, eventually, when you do decide to pull the thing off power you’ll find lackluster and well under advertised battery performance.
I mention this because an “always on” and non-portable “90% used” being plugged in all the time I would avoid buying a laptop specifically for this reason. Better cooling, less power (no display to power), no battery, etc. etc. You’ll have a better, more stable, and longer lasting investment when moving away from using a laptop under this use case.
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If you keep your Files and Roon library backed up, you are safe from any equipment malfunction. Dump the old laptop get a new one put the files back in log on to Roon and thats it 15 minutes tops. If your laptop dies there’s no way to use the core anyway (phone app?).
Though theoretically a nucleus should be more reliable than laptop no one can vouch for a product that has only been on market for such a short time and in relatively small numbers.
That is the way my work supplied Lenovo laptops worked.
I bought a MSI GS65 for personnel use a few months back and was surprised to find it had a more intelligent battery control system than what I was used to. You can set it to “Best for Mobility (charge to 100% all the time)”, or Balanced (charge from 70% to 80%)“, or Best for Battery (charge from 50% to 60%)”. Also has a battery calibration that should be preformed at 3 month intervals to maintain the battery life. It stays plugged in but only charges based on the setting.
Don’t know if other brands are doing that now. This is the first one I’ve purchased.
Apple does this on most of their newer devices.
Agreed, my work laptop is an “always plugged in” source of abuse but I’m required to carry from work to home and back every day (I’m an escalation point). It’s not healthy for the battery but most (all) work machines are leased and this abuse won’t result in much notice over the lease so . But, when it’s my money, I try to think about these things.
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My core is a Dell Latitude and it has a battery option in the bios pertaining to how you intend to use it.
I use a external usb hard drive for my library. Love the setup, love the sound. Quiet and small.
I have a 8th gen i5 cpu and I can up sample to DSD 512 but I prefer the sound of 256.
Do not believe if I were to get into HQ Player that my i5 would cut it.
Curious about the these new AMD Rizen chips that are out performing the Intels.
The business class versions of any manufacturer would be better in my opinion especially since they are designed for work, they tend to last longer.
–MD
What did you do? A quick google indicates that the Latest version of your DAC should be fine on Linux.
I was running my Roon core on my NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS Pro) which is pretty old. Upgrade the CPU and 4GB of RAM. Never had issue with Roon with DSD64 and MQA 352.
I got a good deal $400 CAN on a used NUC8i3BEH (1 month of use) with 16GB RAM, DSD M.2 128 GB and a 1 TB hard drive.
I tried the Roon (Rock) and was easy to do within 15 minutes. I the made a few test then I reformat the NUC and install Win 10 and only Roon server
For me the NUC with Win10 and only Roon server is a better option and seems faster.
I also install Kodi on the NUC so I can use it as a HTPC. The Rock solution is ok but you are loosing the benefit of this litle machine.
All my media files are shared from my NAS on the network
Today I made a test running 4 DSD64 on 4 endpoint
Iphone, ipad, NAD658 and PC. And also playing a movie on Kodi at the same time.
The CPU usage on the NUC was around 30%
My core is on a dedicated Microsoft Surface Pro 6 tablet (i5, fanless). Remote control is Android tablet. It works - I love it. Nice to hear someone else has done this.
2014 Mac mini here. It doesn’t even break a sweat with convolution for room correction.
I have i7-9750h, RTX2060, 16GB with nvme m2 as an media pc. It can run pretty good.
But biggest thing to watch when buying new laptop is that many manufacturers has taken away undervolting and tdp is locked. New intels are baddest because they got caught 
But definetly 9th before 10, 11Yes, go ROCK for your Roon Core. You don’t need anything fancy, my 2015 NUC5i3 handled all measure of DSP, EQ upsampling to DSD256, downconverting 24/352 etc.
I have my Music Library on a NAS, so it can be accessed by anything on the network, plus daily backups to another NAS, monthly backups to an ‘off-line’ USB array, and yearly to discs kept off-site (a draw in my office). The NUC running ROCK is my backend network, accessing the library, with the HiFi components for playback being a separate network segment - but basically everything is networked.
I have had zero issues. Setup was very simple too.
I mostly use my phone for control but its definitely more handy to use the tablet half of my surface book.
Try it with convolution and DSD files and see if it sweats.