There are a wealth of machines out there running gen 4 and 5 processors that can be had for a lot less than a new NUC. They’ll even come with memory, a small SSD and W10 installed if you so desire. Or you can chance trying ROCK. Look for Lenovo ThinkCentre or HP Elitedesk models.
Nothing wrong with my system. Dropped a SGC SonicTransporter i7 in and everything ran fine.
Uncertainty invites overkill.
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A perfect summation of the point I think Anders was making from the beginning.
This is true everywhere. In mechanical engineering, if you don’t have time or money to analyze the snot out of a design, you overdesign the parts so that you can prove they are strong enough with simple assumptions and hand calcs. The less overkill you have the more a detailed analysis matters.
To bring this back on topic. I tested roon out during my demo period on a 2010 mac mini with a core 2 duo (and an SSD) and it worked perfectly fine with my 33000 track library and playing to three zones. I don’t do any DSP except for my Homepod where I low pass away the ridiculous bass. I have since bought a NUC8i5 for my core and maybe it’s better, but certainly not enough to justify the NUC price. But the mac is pretty long in the tooth and I bought the NUC for reliability not performance.
Sheldon
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That may be true if your musical horizon stops in this millennium and only includes very popular genres. But every day I look for things and can’t find them on Tidal and Qobuz. Here’s two examples from the last couple days (these are fresh in my mind, but it happens all the time):
Dixie Chicks: The pre Natalie Maines bluegrass stuff is missing. I have it on MP3 and apparently will be listening to that version til I die.
The Chieftains: They have a discography going back to 1964. They put out a zillion albums and are a pretty big deal in Irish traditional music. Tidal has exactly ZERO albums. Qobuz has some of them, but their greatest hits has tracks missing etc. The fact that Qobuz has an album with tracks missing makes me rage with the fury of 1000 suns. If you can’t get the rights, don’t offer half of it…
So, yeah, there is streaming, but it’s no substitute for decades of music collecting for someone with eclectic tastes. It’s like going to McDonalds and complaining about the lack of itialian options. Plus I’m a control freak, I want my music under my control. All ripped carefully, metadata groomed with love, and backed up everywhere. And also provided to friends on external drives; sharing is caring.
Sheldon
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Blame the label, not the streaming service. I usually find that if you purchase the album from Qobuz, then all the tracks are available. It’s just that the Label doesn’t give streaming rights to Qobuz for some tracks for some unknown reason…
In Roon, “starred” stuff in TIDAL/Qobuz is also counted as “library”.
This may be dependent on where you are; I see 27 albums from The Chieftains on Tidal, going back to 1965.
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Dixie Chicks? Really?
The Chieftains have made about 44 albums, assuming their discography list on Wikipedia is nearly comprehensive. I count 29 of their albums on Tidal (based on a Roon search). So yes, there are some coverage gaps … but it’s not as though Tidal doesn’t cover them fairly well (as far as I can tell, that is).
To the bigger point, I don’t doubt that there exists good, important music that is not available on Tidal/Qobuz (for whatever reason). So yes, I still want the capability to download/rip and store my own digital content. Just not enough that this alone would drive a need for maximum CPU horsepower – in my case. FWIW, I personally own just 5 of their CDs, but they all seem to be in Tidal.
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OK, I have to amend my earlier statement. I can now see lots of chieftains albums on Tidal. Not sure why it was saying none a couple days ago. Pilot error, sorry to stir up the hornets nest.
LOL. Their early stuff when they were a Bluegrass band has moments. I have many guilty pleasures. 
Sheldon
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Dixie Chicks have some very good albums. Natalie’s father, Lloyd Maines is an amazing steel guitar player, producer, etc. Did a lot of work with Joe Ely back in the 1970s, and many others since then. In the world of “progressive country” Lloyd is a guru. He was in the group of the first three inductees in the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame (along with Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughn…good company!) And he produced Natalie Maines (his daughter) who is quite talented in her own right.
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It’s just a matter of what a person likes. Fortunately, we don’t all like the same thing.
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I agree 100%, which is why it is essentially rude to make fun of someone else’s music preferences (which is the only interpretation of “Dixie Chicks, Really?”
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I took no offense at it. 
I have very wide tastes and I’m sure we have albums that overlap.
Sheldon
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Lighten up. Nothing rude at all. I’m sure plenty of people make fun of my obsession with the Beatles and other mid-'60’s groups. I turned 16 in 1964, started dating my 15 year old girlfriend (my wife of 52 years), and formed my first band.
Unless you’re actually in the band, it’s all fair game.
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It was directed at me, and I just laughed at it. Because there is a nugget of truth in there. the Dixie chicks, probably aren’t going to be in the corpus of music that gets sent into space in a capsule when we blow up the planet.
You are still ok in my book, Jim.
Sheldon
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No worries. I just wanted to go on the record that the Dixie Chicks are not some sort of joke. And yes, in that genre, I’d rather listen to Lloyd Maines himself, Joe Ely, or several others…