Yes, and the older one had an aluminum case with real heat sinks whereas the One has a plastic case with faux heat sinks.
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Think I saw a post above from Roon that stated only the top was plastic or composite, the actual box is metal.
If that’s the case, I wonder why they’re installing an internal fan in them.
Nope … see this statement from Roon …
During typical usage the fan is not required, but it’s inclusion allows the CPU to be pushed harder (i.e. heavy DSP use).
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A first review showing some teardown pictures and giving details on performance with DSP by the german Net-Magazine LowBeats:
LowBeats Roon Nuclues One
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My German isn’t up to this but I can understand
Intel Celeron Quad Core and 8gb RAM.
That answers a couple of common questions, assuming that it is accurate.
Apparently somehow Roon found a 86 GB SSD.
And why is Lowbeats saying that it’s the first time HDMI audio is available?
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Good read. I was disappointed that the author didn’t test multichannel+DSP abilities. For example, can it handle something like these examples?
Apparently, according to the review linked above, the heat sinks are part of the plastic cover and are “fake”. The box under the plastic cover is metal, though.
I noticed that as well. My understanding is that multichannel via HDMI has always been included on the Nucleus.
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It says “You can also see a fan. During testing, however, I was only able to notice this when analyzing my library for the first time, when the processor was working under full load for several hours. During normal playback the fan doesn’t even seem to start”
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Hmm so they have turned tail and gone for a CPU they have previously shunned or has it caught up with the 8i3.
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Celeron as a marketing name has been applied to many different designs over the years, some based on the Atom, so the name means little.
Current Celerons are based on the Core and the main difference is that they don‘t have hyperthreading and turbo boost, neither of which is really relevant for Roon. Single core performance is at least on par, probably better for the Celeron vs the 8th gen in the Nucleus, depending on precisely which Celeron model. A good choice if they can get it cheaper.
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It’s a great replacement for my 2014 Mac Mini when it needs replacing.
The author guesses that the price in Europe will be around 700 Euros as we also have to pay VAT. We’ll see.
For the people who worry about its fan being a hindrance. The only time the reviewer heard it kick in was when Roon was busy scanning all the music. When the CPU ran under full load for hours. So I wouldn’t worry about that.
Speaking of load. Max TDP seems to be 21 Watt. But with normal operation the CPU consumes around 7-9 Watts.
The device would be perfect for the likes of me. As my current library sits at just over 56k tracks and about 6k albums. And as I am not a hoarder it grows very slowly.
When it comes to DSP. I am only applying volume leveling on both my streamers. And it can handle that easily.
So as far as I can tell it’s an affordable device for smaller libraries. It is quick, power efficient and doesn’t run hot in normal operations.
It will definitely be on my short list when the time comes that my trusty old 2014 Mac Mini needs replacing.
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A German review just came out where they took the lid off and as many suspected, it is a CELERON processor. Not an I3, Not an I5, not an i7 a CELERON!!!
Now we know why they want people to think of it as just an appliance and not release specs…lol
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Keep making excuses for them. They hid it from you. Now they can’t…
I can get a NUC with an I7 and double the ram for less than this plastic box
costs and it will absolutely obliterate it…but hey, they did great marketing
it as an “appliance”…everyone should just do what they say right?
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It’s still in conflict to their spec on the website that clearly recommends an i3. Latest 2022 Celerons all seem to have very low clock speeds at a glance but not checked their performance in comparison to lates i3s.
As for turbo I can say that it makes a big difference for search which is multithreaded. Having ditched Rock I have been able to play and see what effects performance a bit and turbo has had a big impact on getting faster search queries. Search for reasons unknown very easily maxes out all cores and this can bring Roon to its knees temporarily as many have experienced recently.
For 500 notes I don’t expect a Celeron processor when you can buy so many cheap mini pcs with much more capable processors for a lot less. How well it behaves in the field I guess we will have to wait and see.
To imply that that they’re being disingenuous not releasing specs, when the teardown has been carried out and published by someone who had early access doesn’t exactly make sense. They’re clearly not hiding the specs, they’re just not shouting about them.
It makes perfect sense not to lead with specs, but rather with capabilities, given the target market presumably isn’t you or most people who are happy to put a ROCK together.
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But it’s pretty and has a Roon logo on the front 
I wonder if the logo shines out green when its buried in a cupboard 
My NUC doesn’t see the light of day , its a server after all
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My Mac Mini fits exactly underneath my TV on top of my audio cabinet. If the Nucleus One is of a similar size of my DacMagic 200M it would actually fit inside the cabinet filling up the remaining space.
Wall of gear for sure.
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