Can Roon Core Run on MeLE-Quieter3Q with Celeron N5105 and 8G RAM?

Tinkering
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Anyone try this as the Roon Core?

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It should be able to run Roon Server without too much difficulty. However it will be potentially underpowered, limiting the size of your library and minimising any DSP you may want to use. Other caveats are it uses eMMC as the primary storage which limits speed and no. of read-write cycles. Its speed might impact the user experience. I think after quickly skimming the specification that it will take M.2 memory but that detracts from its attraction as a low cost option. Finally I dont think you can run ROCK which is the most efficient way to run Roon. Next would be Roon Server on some flavour of Linux. Running on Windows would be the least attractive option because of the resources Windows use which eat up such a low powered machineā€™s performance.

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Thanks. The Rock NUCs are outrageously overpriced. I just like the cost and form factor of this little box. I can scrub the Windows off the box and install Ubuntu and Roon server so that shouldnā€™t be a problem. I am concerned about the eMMC as storage. I installed Roon Server on my Synology NAS box but corrupted the database several times because of power failures. We lose power a lot in the country. I put in a backup generator but it takes a few seconds for the generator and automatic power switch to kick the power back on. By then the Synology and done an uncontrolled power shutdown and killed my database. That means I have to reinstall Roon Server, scan the NAS drive, and recreate the database. But I lose all the playlists and have to re-create these from scratch. Roon really needs to resolve this so they donā€™t currupt the database in case of power failures. So just looking for something small and fanless that I can run Roon Server on. Iā€™ll put it behind by APC battery backup and hope it doesnā€™t corrupt the database in case of power failures.

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Iā€™ve got a similar set-up: Synology 918+, UPC, backup generator. I just plugged the NAS into the UPC, and run the core on the NAS. So far Iā€™ve seen no need for a separate Core machine.

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If database security is your primary concern then Iā€™d put decent quality M.2 storage into the new box. That together with database backups should see you in a better place.

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Could you install ROCK 1.0 build 254 on it and use it as a Roon Bridge endpoint with multichannel audio over HDMI?

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I run ROCK on a Celeron NUC without any issues. Can even do DSP without any issues.

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Iā€™m using a Zotac CI331, but the Zotac CI331 doesnā€™t support audio over HDMI when using ROCK/Linux. I want to prevent buying another device that looks like it should work but misses an important feature (but at a cheaper price point than an Intel NUC).
I hoped someone could tell me whether audio over HDMI works when using the MeLE-Quiter3Q with ROCK/Linux.

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Have you enabled the HDMI out on the core?

My Celeron NUC has them available, though they are not enabled. I donā€™t use HDMI as I have endpoints.

And are you looking for audio over HDMI or do you want a display out? ROCK doesnā€™t support display out as far as I know.

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I run Roon Server on a Mele Quieter 3C. Not on the preinstalled Windows 11 OS, though (which runs on a pretty slow internal eMMC drive). Instead, I installed a Samsung 980 SSD drive with a very clean version of Debian on it (and applied a handful of tweaks). Actually I, only use 3 of the 4 cores for Roon, as I have SqueezeLite running on an isolated CPU core. Could not be happier. Low energy consumption, very responsive (seems better than my MacBook Air), and best sound ever.

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I tried ROCK on a MeLE Quieter 3Q, but it looks like ROCK doesnā€™t support the embedded eMMC drive. :cry:

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For me, there was no need to change anything in the BIOS (except bootorder). Secure boot is off by default.

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I use a Ferrum Hypsos to power the Q3C (that I already use for another device) via the recently launched splitter/adaptor.

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So I could run a roon server on this based on Windows? Or a Rock installation on it? Which would be better?

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ā€¦ and that thing will be fast enough with one room running a REW computed DSP fitter within Roon? I have no interest in DSP and do not believe that Roon will unfold Atmos in the near future.

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No guarantees. It might be powerful enough but I would only really consider doing this with no processing at all.

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Tried upsampling 44.1kHz originals to 96kHz on the Q3C, just to see if this would be possible. No problem, cpu usage 30%ish. No clue about other DSP heavy tasks.

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I was not succesfull in installing ROCK on the MeLE Quieter 3Q with HDMI audio. No audio devices are present when using ROCK. HDMI audio outputs are available with Ubuntu 22.10.
The onboard eMMC drive isnā€™t recognized either, I needed to add a M.2 SSD to be able to install ROCK.
I was able to install ROCK, but without audio outputs.

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I never tried to install Rock, as I want full control over the underlying OS. This is what I did:

apt install -y curl sudo wget
usermod -aG sudo [account]

  • Some kernel cmdline options that I would recommend:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Then add to end of GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= line (within quotes):

cpufreq.default_governor=performance mitigations=off nowatchdog ipv6.disable=1

Update: forgot to mention that you need to run update-grub command afterwards.

Btw I also highly recommend to install the super fast Liquorix kernel (https://liquorix.net):

curl ā€˜https://liquorix.net/add-liquorix-repo.shā€™ | sudo bash

Good luck!

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Rock will probably not recognise all the (newer) hardware. So you may want/have to try the steps mentioned above. In my case, after I added the Samsung SSD drive, the BIOS decided ā€œautonomouslyā€ that this should be the preferred boot-drive.

Btw you could check if ā€œFast Bootā€ is enabled in the BIOS. Probably required to disable that.

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