Help on ROCK NUC hardware

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
1

Hi - some newbie advice needed please! I’m putting together my NUC order from the Amazon UK store. The recommended Transcend 64GB M.2. SATA is not currently available. An alternative option looks to be the Samsung 960 EVO https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01M211K53/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A26T7BS9YHZ6DL&psc=1 , but looking at the images, the shape of the interface is different? (Transcend has two notches, Samsung just one) I’m 90% sure it will be ok, but would appreciate a steer from those of you more familiar with the NUC family of products.

Three questions;

  • Will the Samsung fit ok? (I’ve initially selected the NUC7i3BNH with 8GB of RAM for a library of around 70,000 tracks)
  • If not the Samsung, can anyone recommend alternative options?
  • Will the i3 be man enough for the job based on my library size, or should I go for the i7? I have seven endpoints (mostly repurposed squeezebox family products & DietPi’s), and tend to upsample to 192 for any endpoint which supports it. A bit of futureproofing is sensible, but reading the great introduction to this thread, and further comments by @AMP it would suggest an i7 may be overkill? It’s also over £200 more expensive in the UK.

Any help offered much appreciated.

2

Hi,
That Samsung will not fit (it will indeed, I stand corrected), you need this one instead: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SD8SN8U-128G-1122-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B0194MV5U8/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1495890671&sr=1-2&keywords=m.2+ssd+128gb

or this https://www.amazon.co.uk/128GB-ZTC-Armor-Solid-ZTC-SM201-128G/dp/B00IZNYDBG/ref=sr_1_13?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1495890671&sr=1-13&keywords=m.2+ssd+128gb

With that many tracks I would get 8GB RAM instead.
With that many endpoints and upsampling I would get an i7 (if the endpoints are not or won’t be working simultaneously an i5 may be fine).

3

That NVME Samsung 960 will indeed work… i explicitly worked with @AMP to support it.

the other options that @Jose_de_los_Santos suggested will be fine as well, and are more economical.

you cant go wrong with the NUC7i7 w/ 8GB ram… if you can afford the difference, you won’t be disappointed.

4

Yes it will, I have the NUC7i7BNH and the Samsung 960evo 250gb link

Russ

5

Excellent and rapid advice as ever! Thanks all. Looks like an i7 Nuc so I can happily drive my ever increasing network of endpoints. Looking forward to getting it all hooked up. Cheers, Vincent.

6

Sorry - one more question! I’m looking to put an internal 2TB drive in the NUC for the audio. Anyone done the same? And if so any recommendations regarding brands & specific models which are proven to work? Thanks in advance.

7

@brian What did you put in yours?

8

I used an external 4TB USB Disk, because I needed more than 2TB.

1 Like
9

Also read https://kb.roonlabs.com/ROCK:_Storage_Basics

10

Would ROCK work on a cirrus7 nimbus v2 as seen here:

http://www.cirrus7.com/mini-desktop/cirrus7-nimbus-v2.html

I am looking at the configuration with an i5-7500T and Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 NVME.

11

It might, but even if it does, there’s absolutely no guarantee that it will continue to work. From the ROCK page in the KB:

We have worked with Intel to support their Intel NUC line of products. They are low power high performance easy to install units that work very nicely as a Roon Core Server. The models we support are:
NUC5i3XXX
NUC5i5XXX
NUC6i3XXX
NUC6i5XXX
NUC7i3XXX
NUC7i5XXX
NUC7i7XXX
Any hardware configurations other than the above are unsupported. Although they may work now, they may also stop working at any time due to updates.

and

We have only tested with the above mentioned NUCs. It may work with other machines, but the drivers needed may not exist there. Try it out and let us know. We can not comment on whether any different hardware will work, as we have not tested it. We will not make any guesses, educated as they might be.
If you do manage to get it to run, that’s great, but we can not guarantee it will continue to work with future builds. Consider yourself warned.

12

Thanks for your reply.
I’ve read the knowledge base and was confused, that’s why I asked.
What would I have to do in order to get a supported fanless DIY NUC? Get myself a standard NUC (like in the amazon link from roon) an an aftermarket case?

13

Yes - that would be the only guaranteed route. Akasa make suitable cases for Intel NUCs - but note that there is currently no solution for 7th generation i7 NUCs, only i3 and i5 varieties.

14

The Plato X6 is a solution for 6th generation i7’s. It is physically bigger than the version for i3/i5. There is also an X7 already for sale for the 7th generation CPU’s.

15

Alright, thanks again.
Back to the drawing board it is…

16

There is no Akasa fanless case for the NUC i7. That’s why I bought an 7th Gen i5. The Thermal Power Design (TDP) of the NUC 7th Gen i5 is just 15 watt!

17

Plato X7

18

So I’m interested in moving in this direction, limited budget, somewhat limited tech savvy, but with a history of mucking about inside PCs. Do you buy a bare board and put it in this case? I would prefer a fanless case, given the choice.

19

FWIW - I have an Intel NUC Kit NUC6i5SYH. It has a second SSD drive in it for music storage as well. It is dead quiet, and this is the stock unit, no special after market case, etc…

Dead simple to setup with ROCK. Just add memory and storage. Update BIOS, install ROCK, configure and you are ready to roll. No tinkering required, which might be off putting for some.

And no playing around with optimization scripts as I did when I was using it with Roon and Windows 10 Pro.

20

I used the Seagate 2TB Barracuda. It works fine.