Hello everyone,
First of all, sorry for my poor English!
I have an old Intel NUC running ROON ROCK.
If I buy a new NUC and install the old RAM and SSD in it, will the system run immediately, or will I have to do a clean install?
This all depends on the models. Newer models use UEFI for booting whereas older ones do not.
Please state the models, and the community can guide you through the upgrade, and advise on compatibility etc.
If it’s the same model (or at least a model that uses the same spec of memory) you should be able to get away with this.
I think NUCs can cope with slower than optimal memory, but generally it’s best to use the right speed memory for the motherboard.
Similarly NVMe ssds are faster if your NUC supports them, so if your old SSD wasn’t NVMe and the new NUC supports this it’s probably worth upgrading for better performance.
If you have a second ssd /disk for media you can certainly re-use this.
If you can provide more info about the old and new nucs - I can check the specs.
But generally if it’s a different model, I’d generally back-up the old machine, and install the new machine from scratch.
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Thanks for the answers.
So, can I just try it out? Or is there a risk that I might damage the hardware?
And if @Christoph_Eichenseer’s old installation used Legacy BIOS, he may be better off reinstalling in UEFI mode now, to be sure to get all future Roon OS updates. (For now only Tailscale, but who knows what might come)
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One thing that could well be comming is authenticated Smb shares that eliminate the Windows 11 24H2 and later Smb access issues - which will surely be valuable to many and, like the support for Tailscale, is unlikely to be given priority for backpirting to Bios boot systems.
One more (last?) question:
“Years ago,” I had ROCK in a fanless Akasa case. That’s why I lost the serial number and other information.
Is there a way to identify the device version/NUC generation, e.g., on the circuit board?
You can boot into the bios and check you model number and while you are there check to see if you are on Legacy or UEFI boot. Usually get there by pressing F2 during start-up. You will need a monitor (or TV) and a keyboard hooked up to do this.
@Christoph_Eichenseer
So, in that case (legacy boot), you are better of to reinstall Rock from scratch on your new NUC as @Suedkiez already suggested.
First make a backup on the old NUC, and install ROCK freshly on the new NUC, but in UEFI-mode.
Then restore the backup of your old NUC into the new NUC, and everything will work perfectly and will be future-proof.
Good luck with it, Frank.
Thank you all for your help.
@Christoph_Eichenseer
The most important question: why do you want to new NUC when the old one is a NUC7i5 with Akasa case?
You will not gain much by upgrading the hardware in my opinion. Only when you have an enormous collection, than an upgrade to a i7-processor could help.
But, according to me, a NUC7i5 is powerful enough to cope with normal ROON Core usage.
But, what could be a good “exercise” is to rebuild the NUC7i5, but than in UEFI boot. Then you are future proof again. If you are afraid of destroying a good working system, you can just buy a new M.2 SSD (128GB is more than enough), and remove the original M.2 from the NUC7i5. Now you can play as long as you want to install ROCK on the new SSD in UEFI-mode. If you do not succeed, you can simply swap the new M.2 SSD with the old one, change the back Boot Order from UEFI to Lagecy, and you are up and running again with the old configuration.
Good luck, Frank.
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Agree with your thoughts here.
Just one small point, that some of the newer NUCS - even the i3s - are quite powerful.
The 13i3 as used in the Titan is 30% faster than my 8i7.
But as you say for most of us these older machine are plenty fast enough.
Another note is that some of the newer models now offer DDR5 memory as opposed to the DDR4 that is in the OPs current NUC. So they might need to buy new memory depending on the NUC they purchased.
Thank you for your very helpful comments.
I’m not looking for more speed, but I’ve had problems with my external hard drive on the NUC 2-3 times in the last 3 months. Only on the NUC - at my PC everything is fine. I thought that after 7-8 years, it was nearing the end of the NUCs life. But maybe I’d be better off investing in a new hard drive?
For your information: my library contains approx. 45,000 items.
Is the external HDD a spinning disk or SSD?
7-8 years on a spinner is a long time and either way it might be good to try a new one?
Also, not that it is related but have you cleaned the NUC lately? Even if the NUC is in a fanless case it might be time to “refresh” thermal paste and blow out any dust that might have accumulated inside?
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It IS an external HDD
Exactly my thoughts, and when I saw you typing, there was no need to repeat. 
It’s better to let go of an old HDD than try to recover from a bad situation.
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If I were to change now, I would choose something like this…Roon LLC Nucleus Plus - latest Rev. B model, upgraded RAM and SSD (4851959698) | Gebrauchtgerät | Roon-Core-Server | Angebot auf audio-markt.de
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