Having watched the video, I have to agree. He’s made DIY Rock less geeky and more mainstream, even the ffmpeg codec install bit. In all, a good tutorial from him to be honest.
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I concur. I have a NUC5i3, it’s running my Core very efficiently, with lots of PCM DSP (8 channel convolution, volume control and upsampling to PCM 384k). 1500k albums in library and 7 zones.
The only thing it can’t do is upsampling to DSD.
8GB of RAM / 128GB SSD is largely enough under ROCK or Windows.
Hi Denis,
I have a Rock with RockOS and I3-8145. There is no lag with album rendering with my installation. Are you on WIN 10?
No, but it does have a fan that might turn on if you are sending it DSD 512.
WiFi removes any galvanic connection but it is not full duplex and may struggle with DSD 512. Try it and see.
Try it and see !
Ehum, a fan which is always on I would say. Which also speeds up a few times a day, even if streaming just Tidal or 44/16 from disc.
Impossible to have in a listening room.
Hi Chris - that’s an 8th Gen i5 so may have better rendering. I must check Win10 and see if that also has the lag issue
I like his videos 
but I hate he has blocked the comment section. 
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This depends on the rest of your chain. In “better” systems you can easily hear the difference.
And then there are these:
Though they do add another €100 or so to the price and are a step up in assembly challenge. No special skills or tools required, just a little care and patience.
Good to hear that a NUC5i3 can support 7 zones with Room EQ and levels of DSP
With my NUC5i3 I am able to convert PCM to DSD.
I have support for DSD64 in my main Naim NDS endpoint, so can I confirm it can be undertaken without drop-outs. I have been also convert to DSD128 also, and the conversion was stable.
I’ve had my NUC for about 4 years, I guess, and cannot recall the fan ever engaging. I live in Hong Kong so the ambient temperature can be high. I don’t play DSD or much hi res of any description. My NUC about eight feet behind me on a low shelf.
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If that is the case, then bloody hell, then what did I do wrong with my setup? Intel NUC NUC7I5BNH with 8GB RAM. In frozen Stockholm mind you.
There is always some quiet sounds from it, but fans usually spin up at sometime during the day/night as well and that can be heard from nearby rooms. The quiet “wind sound” which the default state would annoy me if placed 8 feet away. That is just crazy talk to me. 
Perhaps he just got tired of all of the trolls and uninformed/misinformed opinions. Although we are used to being able to make comments following a blog it is certainly not a right. He is just offering his opinions and no one is being forced to read them.
The Internet has become incredibly full of misinformation and contention. I certainly see far more of it in the comments sections of various blogs and forums than in most original posts. Equipment forums seem most susceptible. Posters make negative and even positive claims about a device they have never seen, owned or have only read about. Others post negative claims about equipment they do own but do not really fully understand. I guess that caveat emptor applies to blogs also.
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I’ve said before on here that I quite like Jon Darko’s engaging style. I do however fear that he circulates of some of the said misinformation.
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I hate to say it, but I’ve never heard the fan turn on in my NUC either. I’m in sunny California…
In his house? 
I should start a survey about how to pronounce NUC.
My NUC is on my desk, about 2 feet away from me.
I’ve heard the fan once and a quick vacuum of the vents took care of that.
I don’t know!
I have never heard the fan engaging on my 8i5 NUC either. However, I don’t do much DSP for the most part.
This is a side track in this thread, so will no post more here after this post, but: Oh man. I see all your replies. I guess I have to build another NUC and test again. Mine seems to be an outlier here.