Not wishing to tempt fate 
but increasingly posts suggest the bathtub up-curve is looming - and we’re all going to die fairly soon
I have a 2019 Nucleus, it would seem an awful waste to not use the case, come the time…
Will later gen NUC boards, or new mini-PC hardware fit?
It would have to be the same motherboard in size and back plate port configuration.
The reason motherboard back plates exist on computer cases is so they can be used with motherboards of the same format but different rear connection configurations. Given that the back of the Nucleus the back connection port holes are milled, you would need to do a lot of case remodeling.
I haven’t tried anything else than the same gen NUC board, 7th.
But the NUC’s share the same connector contour all the way up to the 10th gen NUC’s
So any of these should fit, and work just fine. I bought an i5 from the 10th Gen as a spare, and i’m sure it will work fine. (processor and other cooling dependant devices seems to share a same-ish pattern and location.)
In addition to the points already made, it seems to me that a Nucleus failure in the majority of the cases reported in the forum are failures of the M.2 SSD rather than the motherboard or power supply components.
Good, that’s what I wanted to know, thanks Mikael
(Watching NUC board prices spike 
)
That’s kind of reassuring, but it’s hardware and it will fail eventually - I would think Roon must know all of the failure points and occurrences
I’ve built and repaired many PCs, and clearly the limiting factor for the Nucleus case is the Mobo
If the form factor up to 10th gen will fit, then there’s a younger and potentially more powerful (albeit NOS or used) fix
The Nucleus case would have been designed with the thermal output of the chosen NUC. So moving up to newer more powerful models may tip the balance of its thermal capabilities, also as you won’t be be able to install RoonOS that has the thermal management stuff built in as that’s reserved for Nuclues only it might not work as intended in the case and overheat. But it all might function fine.
This is the main reason I would never buy something like this or any expensive server as they die it’s expensive to get them repaired or you have an expensive paperweight.
Nucleus + is an i7 with 8GB vs the i3 with 4GB in the standard - so it would seem going to an i7 should be fine
AFAIK intel Cores self throttle thermally, and I’ve read the i7 can be more efficient than an i5. Playing music and occasionally managing the database is hardly that taxing, surely, and certainly not all the time?
I wouldn’t ordinarily have gone down the Nucleus cul de sac, but at the time I was working away and it was more convenient just to buy one, plus I got an extremely good deal on lifetime
I have a library nobody could reasonably listen to all of (33,000 tracks, a years listening at 8 hours a day) but well within Nucleus spec.
I’ve noticed upsampling has marginally slowed response times, but I like what it does so I can live with that
That is a valid point, but it seems to me that the newer generation NUC’s are better at throttling so the net result seem to be significantly cooler runnings.
Besides, judging by the performance of current Roon in a Nucleus+ (1st gen) it’s working it’s ass off and the 10th gen doesn’t even break a sweat, even if it’s an i5.
No not reallty one i7 isnt the same as another, later models all put out a lot more heat. I know my 11i7 does.
My 11i7 seems to run pretty warm just idling. Yes they do throttle quicker from my experience with this one but its still a risk.
I’ve got an X1 Carbon with an i7, it barely gets warm and I very rarely hear the fan
I’m sure, with those big Nucleus heat sinks (spec’d for ‘Plus’) generally music-serving low demand, occasional db loading, Intel throttling - it’ll be fine 
Besides, my Nucleus is fine - so far, gulp 
Maybe, but, the Nucleus also maintains its thermal levels by throttling the CPU. That is why Roon warns against running ROCK on a Nucleus, as ROCK doesn’t have this code.
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