Anyone try this as the Roon Core?
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 machine’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 shouldn’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 don’t currupt the database in case of power failures. So just looking for something small and fanless that I can run Roon Server on. I’ll put it behind by APC battery backup and hope it doesn’t corrupt the database in case of power failures.
I’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 I’ve seen no need for a separate Core machine.
If database security is your primary concern then I’d put decent quality M.2 storage into the new box. That together with database backups should see you in a better place.