Is ROCK supported on Intel 10th Gen NUC? [yes]

Is ROCK supported on Intel 10th Gen NUC?

Recently I want to buy a Intel NUC, any suggestions?

no. it isn’t yet.

Will it be? Reason I ask is that the NUC10i7FNH is only £30 more than the NUC8i7BEWH.

Yes, it will be supported.

It’s in alpha testing now. No promises since it could fail wider scale testing, but I’d hope it be out by end of August. NO PROMISES.

Before anyone asks, we are not looking to expand the pre-release testing group at the moment.

Thanks Danny. Doing some reading around, the 8th gen is considered by many to be a more well rounded machine than the 10th gen and perhaps more suitable for media server applications. Might go for that one after all, will see!

Would you be so kind to summarize? Overheat?

I don’t recall the specifics but if you google NUC 8th vs 10th gen then there are a number of discussions about it, and that was a common theme.

I didn’t seriously think NUC10 would be worse than NUC8, but I did more reading for i5 and i7 class offerings, and checked a bunch of benchmarks. GPU of NUC10 is definitely worse, so Windows users should forget it. ROCK does not depend on the GPU though. In terms of CPU, while single-thread performance is (I think) the most important for Roon DSP, it’s not entirely consistent across different benchmarks, but if I have to pick a winner it’d also be NUC8.

For the purpose of Roon, my preliminary position is that NUC8i7 or i5 is better than NUC10i7 or i5. Only those who care about energy more than performance should consider NUC10 over NUC8, when official support for NUC10 becomes available.

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Can anyone explain how that makes any sense?

The NUC10i7 has a 6-core, 12-thread 4.7GHz turbo cpu with 12mb cache. The NUC8i7 has a 4-core, 8-thread 4.5GHz turbo cpu with 8mb cache.

The NUC8i7 is no slouch, but I don’t see how anyone could argue the NUC10i7 is being outclassed from any perspective, besides sample size of NUCs in use.

For thermals, don’t miss the new Akasa Turing FX~

I am using g8. Works perfectly.

Speed is not only determined by cores and frequency. More GHz doesn’t necessarily imply faster.

The critical piece you are missing that the NUC10i7FN is a 15w TDP CPU (Intel i7 10701U) that normally runs at 1.1ghz, and the NUC8i7BE is a 28w TDP CPU (Intel i7 8559U) that normally runs at 2.7ghz.

Look here as a comparison between the two:

“Single Thread Rating” is lower on the NUC10’s CPU.

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I followed up my post by reading some more reviews and the most conclusive info I could find focused on the GPU differences, since it’s Iris Pro (NUC8) vs. Intel UHD (NUC10), obviously the Iris pro being leagues ahead.

But in the case of a Roon Core running on ROCK, I’m not sure what role the GPU might play. For sure there are no visual rendering requirements, but I’m not sure if you’ve developed ROCK OS to leverage GPU co-processing and in which case the change away from Iris Pro could matter?

Anyway, what I wanted to ask was whether Roon Core running on ROCK on a NUC is optimised to leverage the fastest 2-core turbo clock speed or whether it performs better with comparable clock speeds and more threads?

If only clock speed, then the NU8i7 vs. NUC10i7 should be negligable. And in which case the NUC8 may be better due to the TDP topic, and overall due to price and track record in the role. Even the performacne differences noted in any test reviews that I have read have shown the single-thread rating to be within a very small range across the 2. Not lopsided like the GPU differences.

But the multi-threaded difference could matter, if Roon Core on ROCK was optimized for that. But that’s a specific design choice and I don’t think that’s the optimization direction ROCK has taken, especially based on your reply about single-thread perforamce.

Thanks, I already buy a NUC8i7.

Personally, when dealling with Roon, I would not want to be on the “cutting edge” of new technology. I would use proven technology that is fully supported by Roon.

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The CPU can not maintain turbo for very long without overheating. Every real use for CPU in Roon is a long process. Turbo does very little for us.

In fact, on fanless systems, you’d want to turn off Turbo completely as it could damage the CPU.

Single thread performance is always king, but Roon makes use of multiple CPUs just fine. In some cases, it requires it.

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Thanks for your direct replies.

I would clarify that “single thread performance” is not always king because some workflows, software, and filters are designed to maximize multiple threads over single core performacne. Which is precisely why I asked. It’s not a given that all computer software programs are developed to get the most value from single core performance, though that does make up the majority of software.

In your case, your point is exactly that, that single core performacne is the king for Roon, and Roon also makes use of multiple cores for certain workflows.

Thanks for clearing everything up, Danny. It’s really clear now where we should be placing our bets on this one.

But, since the OP is asking about Roon ROCK…

@danny
For the NUC8i7BE, is it really listed as NUC8i7BEH (8th Generation Intel Core i7 8559U Processor)?

I ask because I currently have a NUC7i7BNH 7th Generation Intel Core i7 7567U running as my ROCK and have the opportunity to get the NUC8i7BEH at a very good discount (sadly I can’t pass the discount out to others).

Is it worth the effort switching from the 7i7 to the 8i7?

no, it isnt.

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