Just Threw it on a Synology DS220 Wondering if I have to start over to move the DB to a USB SSD

I wasnt sure how I would like Roon, so i just popped it on a DS220 NAS (Celeron 2gb), and didnt want to invest in the USB SSD or Extra Memory. Well I really like Roon, and would like to make it a little bit speedier. Couple of questions

  1. I have searched the site and I dont see any discussion on moving the database after its established to a USB3.0 SSD. Is this possible is there a link on how to do it?

  2. Would more memory about $100 worth make a meaningful difference?

Thanks

Hi @Mark_Morawski,

Welcome to the forum!

A Celeron CPU does not meet our Minimum Requirements, so you can potentially run into issues regardless if you add more RAM or not (even though 4GB is minimum RAM suggested).

My suggestion would be to use a properly spec’d Roon Core, if you want an always-on appliance Core,
ROCK: Roon Optimized Core Kit or a Roon Nucleus are two fantastic choices.

Moving the Roon database is fairly straightforward, you use Backups to do so, we have a Migration Knowledge Base Article as well.

Hope this helps!

Hi, well the Celeron in the Nas box is the equivalent of an I3… could you tell me which would be a bigger boost at least theoretically the SSD or more ram?

Hi @Mark_Morawski,

What is the size of your Roon library?

About 50,000 tracks and 1.5ish terrabytes.

Hi @Mark_Morawski,

I spoke to the team about this one, and we can’t guess as to which one would help more, we cannot make any gaurantees that Roon will work as expected if you are using under-spec’d gear. We would highly suggest using a Core that meets the Minimum Requirements.

Noris,

I had thought that Roonlabs was a software company, but i guess I am wrong and Roon must get alot of revenue from Roon certified hardware. I cant figure out any reason why Roon wouldnt want to cut the price of entry into the roon environment in half (the 220+ is about half the cost of the recommended hardware at $299). Software performs well on it so far, and I think some of the initial latency must have been due to the library still being indexed. I have 4gb more of memory coming for the device, as well as a small USB 3.0 SSD. I will get these installed and report back. I suspect my findings will be that the memory will only come into play when the device is doing multiple tasks, but that the SSD will some to be determined incremental input.

The roon experience is great, but many folks like see it as a product with a high barrier to entry product which it isnt. Raspberry Pi and a $300 NAS, and you are good to go.

Mark

I’m not speaking for Roon here, but appreciate that Roon is a data munching beast. There is a lot going on manipulating the database core. During setup, it needs to induct a lot of data from both the new music and associated information across the internet. I will also conduct an audio analysis for several Roon features. It has built in capabilities for advanced digital signal processing, which it may do with any of the various endpoints its streaming to (often in different communications protocols). This all requires serious horsepower. At least to me, it wouldn’t make sense to recommend hardware they know can offer a substandard experience. That’s a bad way to retain customers.
What Roon has done is release a dedicated OS that runs on these small NUC computers. That is free, to lower the entry barrier.
Despite Roon’s lack of support for Celeron-based solutions, there are a number of Roon users that employ them, with various degrees of success. It would be worthwhile searching for threads from those users to get their experience on what improved performance. I’d say this comes up pretty regularly.
Welcome to Roon. It’s good to have you in the Community.

It’s really not the equivalent of a nuc i3 which is double the single thread speed.
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8109U-vs-Intel-Celeron-J4005/m609620vsm473105

Its not the equivalent of the latest I3’s no, I3s of a couple of gens ago absolutely. It is about about 20% faster than the compared chip above… Point I was trying to make is as a Roon user the more people that use the software, the better the software will become. If you can bolt this on a NAS, which is an appliance, that for example hosts my google drive acct, and my photo / video collection in a raid 0 environment, then more people would be inclined to make the move. It is also a 10 watt part.

We do have quite a low price to entry, most customers have a laptop around or a PC the house which meets those requirements and which can run the Roon Core.

Once you understand how Roon works and want to make the upgrade, you can look into a dedicated Roon Server.

Or for ~$100 more, you can assemble a properly spec’d ROCK NUC package:
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Optimized_Core_Kit

Norris, the point of the post is that you cant do what I am doing on a NAS for twice the price on a NUC. I looked at the build list. What the synology is the file server for the family, in addition to being the Roon server for audio. It supports a two bay raid 0 NAS with world class software and remote access capabiliteis etc. When you buy Windows for the NUC, a two bay enclosure, Raid management software etc, you are easily twice the price of the synology. If I were building a purpose build Roon server then you are right the NUC is the way to go, what I am saying are that there are a ton of users out there that dont have a the money or computer skils to configure a NUC to be that all in one machine. I will drop the thread here, but a synology isnt a bad machine.

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