Now that Intel officially published the 10th generation of their NUC line, I’m curious what can we expect. When will be they supported by Roon R.O.C.K.? Should we wait for 10th gen or is it better to stay with 8th gen? I decided to buy a NUC, and on my short-list the 8i3 and 8i7 were the two candidates. But now, I don’t know what to do.
The CPU clock speed of the new line will be significantly slower, and as a result they come with lower TDP (based on some tests). Performance results for the CPU’s are already available on cpubenchmark.net .
Any info from the Roon Team or any guidance from the community would be highly appreciated.
I can’t wait for them to get out, I’ll definitely buy one.
It must be said that I do not use ROCK but Ubuntu on which I run roon servers and other applications and that’s why it’s tempting; Currently all these are running on a poor but great NUC pole;
Would be good if that happens and price of the “old stock” would go down, but as I can see in several webshops some of the 8’th gen NUCs are already not on stock. I don’t expect a price decrease in case of the older models, rather the 10’th gen will be slightly more expensive. As my R.O.C.K. would be up 7/24 , power consumption matters. But not on any price. And timing is important as well, I don’t want to wait month for my new roon server, this is why I would appreciate Roon Team’s feedback about support of the new NUC’s.
If you NEED one now, then get it. If you don’t then wait.
I’d have to actually go back to the previous NUC releases, which you could search as well, to check my memory; but, I think that information about a new NUC version begins to be discussed after the NUC has been officially released.
I just ordered the Cirrus7 8i5. Performance should be similar to the Nucleus i7. I really won’t need that much power for ROCK since I use Chord M-Scaler as upsampler. Replacing a UpTone modified Mac mini from 2011 that never broke any sweat running Roon.
I did considered NUC10 but reasons for going 10 doesn’t make sense for ROCK considering the Nucleus is still on NUC7 platform(?).
From what I understand the 10 makes most sense as i7 model. But I doubt that Roon would need that power in a foreseeable future.
Of course 8i5 is an option as well. The only reason why I din’t mention it was the pricing. At the time of my post the price difference between best prices for 8i3 and 8i5 was around 50 %, and only 15-20 % between the 8i5 and 8i7. But it seems the situation is changing. Hopefully there will be some good deals before/after NUC10 launch. However I don’t expect anything serious. Will see…
After spending several (this usually means plenty of) hours finding answers to my questions I ordered a NUC8i5BEH2.
One of my biggest concern was the TDP of CPU i5-8259U vs i5-10210U because my ROCK will run 7/24. But now the picture is clearer, once the NUC is in idle, there is no significant difference between the two CPU’s.
My music library is not too big and I don’t use CPU hungry DSP features. Even with an 8th gen i3 I would be OK. But it is better to invest a bit more to be somewhat future proof.
And importantly Christmas is coming, I will have time to play with my new server. For the 8th gen NUC’s fanless cases are already available and are Roon ROCK supported. Who knows when will be both available for the 10th gen NUC’s. I will install 8 GB Apacer RAM and a Samsung 860 EVO or 960 EVO or 970 EVO plus SSD. Don’t know which SSD would be the best…
Given I have additional reasons for considering the 10th Gen i7 NUC, I would like to know what the timing meet be regarding testing and certification. Does anyone know what the process might be? Can anyone characterize the probability of ROCK working on the 10th Gen? Thanks for you response in advance.
Let me share my first impressions with NUC8i5BEH2 config (250GB Samsung EVO Plus NVMe M.2 SSD, 1 pcs 8GB 2400 MHz CL17 Apacer RAM module).
It was easier than expected to install ROCK and migrate the existing Roon database. The NUC runs relatively quiet, but I will go fanless once my Akasa Turing case will arrive (expected around mid January)
Power consumption and performance:
As I mentioned earlier this was my biggest concern. But now I’m OK When in idle, the NUC consume not more than 4-5 Wh, and under load with the used DSP settings it goes up just to 6-7 Wh. OK, I do not use CPU intensive DSD conversions. Slowest processing speed was 9x with a DSD file, but generally it runs around 18x, which means I still have enough computing reserves…
Sound quality:
Well… someone says bits are bits. But based on my experience it’s not fully true. (Do not deny anything before trying, this is my philosophy.) Running ROCK on a dedicated server gives me more balanced sound, better sound stage, more details. I’m satisfied with the change… All in all it was a good decision to invest in a NUC.
I’ve been looking at making the jump to ROCK on NUC, but it looks like the NUC8i7BEH is sold out everywhere (and I can’t get a clear read on whether it’s likely to come back).
I’m not too worried about the fanless case. If it’s too noisy, I’ll move it into the basement where I’ve got a makeshift computer rack.
I’ve been thinking that the NUC10 is a bit expensive, but the NUC8 prices seem to be inflated to nearly the same cost, probably due to the apparent shortage.
The primary reason I’m looking at NUC is that the roon core I’m running on Win10 (Devil’s Canyon processor) has been flakey (losing local audio devices and can’t find them until I restart the core, Qobuz login fails after every computer restart) and end points consistently take several seconds to connect.
So, I’m leaning towards the best performance I can get on a dedicated platform, but I can probably wait a bit to see if prices get better or the NUC8 comes back in stock.
Mostly, I just wanted to make sure the NUC10 will actually work with ROCK in case I decide to go that route.
Well, sometimes a fanless case is used in order to decrease electrical noise and reduce vibrations. Whether those can have impact on sound quality or not is another endless debate.
Good point, this is an important question! I think Rooon Team will deal with this issue, but it is better to see than hope. Good luck for the next couple of weeks to find a good NUC8 deal soon, or a confirmation about NUC10 compatibility.
True. I doubt my gear (or maybe my ears) would notice the difference. In any case, if I do move it into the basement, I’ll likely switch the endpoint to a Pi feeding my receiver.
When in idle, the NUC consume not more than 4-5 Wh, and under load with the used DSP settings it goes up just to 6-7 Wh. OK, I do not use CPU intensive DSD conversions. Slowest processing speed was 9x with a DSD file, but generally it runs around 18x, which means I still have enough computing reserves…
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