I’d second that - I got Synology’s for work reason (self employed from home), and adding Roon to one, and then ripping all my CD’s was probably the best thing I did this year. I use a Raspberry Pi3 with HiFiBerry HAT’s to feed TOSLINK into a DAC in one palce, and a small all-in-one hifi in the office.
The decision to implement had it running in about 15-20 minutes from starting the download. Very impressive (and I speak as an IT consultant).
I recently upgraded to a QNAP TVS-672N (Intel i3) and added an internal Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD for Roon Core and database, upgraded to 16 GB RAM, with my music library on the WD Red spinning discs. This setup works flawlessly and is fast. (Also good for Plex for movies.)
If you have no experience with linux, don’t want to learn, or work with it all day and just need something headache free, a pre-built NAS is a great idea. Synology makes reliable units and due to them being the most popular, support, mods, and parts are abundant.
If you want to roll your own I recommend looking around and seeing whats on the market. I use a threadripper build running unraid right now but that’s overkill for most people’s needs.
Here’s a storage-less build for you. I threw a GPU in there since its the cheapest card that has Nvidia’s newest NVENC capabilities which are really useful for Plex (shudder, please switch to Emby guys) transcoding since you can unlock the drivers and do more than 2 streams at once.
For storage I recommend shucking large external drives as they go on sale. I think 12TB is currently the soft spot for price to performance ratio.
If you’re using more than 4 HDDs I recommend buying a SAS card instead of using the motherboard’s SATA controller.
Add images
Enjoy. The Define 7 is a great case and will take up to 18HDDs, if you want something smaller they have lots of nearly identical cases in various sizes. I have a 5, a 7, a Mini and an S2 XL, and they’re fantastic. Super unobtrusive and quiet, plus you don’t look like a flashy gamer.
P.s, if this is in your listening room, you’ll want a Noctua air cooler instead of the bundled CPU cooler.
I (the op) don’t know why what started out as—what I thought to be—a simple request for simple ideas got turned into a “tinkering” topic, but there you have it. FWIW, I’m going with the repurposed Mac Mini with a couple of 1TB SSDs attached. The rest of this may as well be quantum mechanics to me quite honestly—and well outside the bandwidth of my interest—so I’m checking out. Sincere thanks to all for the ideas.
A NAS is just a headless Linux computer, so if you get one, you’re still leaving a computer on all the time. When my last one died I replaced it with a USB hard drive attached to my Roon server. It’s a lot simpler to manage.
I use a QNAP TS-1282T with 32GB of RAM. The Roon database is on spinning drives but I’m using SSD for cache. It’s overkill for Roon but I’ve got a bunch of other workload sharing the NAS. Ie. VMs, docker images, PLEX, file sharing and TimeMachine.
QNAP. TBS453 DX. Pop in four 2Tb SSDs, configure for RAID as you like
The qnap is small and completely silent, no fan.
I’m a TrueNAS fan. I have a home brew server built on SuperMicro Xeon workstation parts. This system runs Roon core and holds my media. It also serves as a Time Machine spool volume. If I were to do it over again today, I’d buy a machine directly from iXsystems.com
Here’s why. First, TrueNAS is a professional grade storage subsystem. It checksums data and metadata and can correct any single bit errors. Linux based NAS systems do not checksum the file data which can deteriorate (bit rot) undetected. This will not happen with a ZFS filesystem based NAS. Inexpensive NAS systems do not use memory error correction which is essential for continuously operating software to function correctly in the presence of radiation induced soft errors.
Second, iXsystems has carefully selected enclosures, motherboards, memory, and drives for continuous operation for storage service. Any of the systems should be able to run Roon Core in a VM but allow extra memory for the VM. The TrueNAS Mini has externally accessible hot swap drive bays. Drives can be replaced without taking down the system to open it up and pull connectors.
Third, the TrueNAS Core environment can run Ubuntu Linux and Roon Core in a virtual machine. This works very nicely. Configure the your TrueNAS media directory as a virtual disk of the VM and you’ll have kernel access to that data rather than network access. Same with the Roon database and Roon backups. Life is speedy that way.
Fourth, Roon can CIFS serve any dataset in any file system. Roon configuration requires CIFS access to the media and metadata for configuration purposes. TrueNAS easily configures CIFS shares of TrueNAS datasets.
I recommend buying the 8 bay enclosure. I recommend sizing the system for RaidZ2 with 2 disk redundancy. This takes 6 slots. With single disk redundancy, the system is vulnerable to a second disk failure while the system is constructing the contents of the replacement disk.
iXsystems uses WD Red + storage media designed for NAS service so clustered failures should be unlikely. Storage and memory price will dominate the system price. iXsystems get better than Amazon pricing. Same with ECC memory.
I have a single 8TB ZFS disk in the box as a replication target. This disk goes in slot 7 with slot 8 left for growth or redundancy. This works well.
I originally tried to use an 8TB USB shoebox as a backup target. USB enclosures are the last stop on the way to the scrap heap for new disk drives. And the USB enclosure kept going into hibernation. The internal disk has worked flawlessly. Many people keep their older TrueNAS systems to function as backup replication targets.
Roon’s recommendations for sizing Roon Core systems are not terribly sound. Follow their system memory recommendations. Use of SSD disks is unnecessary as TrueNAS will keep the active metadata in the system buffer cache in main memory.
The important sizing metric is the number of unique endpoint streams being served. That’s the critical workload. Indexing of media libraries can proceed at leisure and take as long as it needs to. Roon builds a nice database of library metadata that is quickly searched once it is ready. Search for Tidal and Qobuz titles not in your library are up to the individual services and nothing you do will shorten those times.
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Hi there,
I am running Roon on a Synology NAS DS220+.
Upgraded RAM to 10GB, although not officially supported by Synology, but it works. Also added an external SSD to host the database of Roon.
I am not doing any room correction and my collection consists of only a few hundreds albums. Besides that I am using Tidal most of the time.
Overall I am more than happy with this solution. I used to run Roon on a NUC which was not running all the time so that I had to turn it on when I wanted to listen to some music. But the NAS is runng all the time for different purposes anyway.
Thank you for this information. This is exactly what I am attempting to set up right now! I am trying CentOS Server in a VM but I am a complete noob with TrueNAS so far.
I have a Synology DS218+, 2 bays with 2 HDD WD Red 6T. With the Synology DS218 + you can increase the RAM power because there is a separate RAM shaft therefore.
1.) Increase the memory from 2 GB to 12 GB.
2.) Download the Roon core to a separate SSD with min.128 GB memory.
3.) Connect the SSD via USB to the Synology NAS.
This constellation works perfect via Ethernet.
I have a Cambridge Edge NQ streamer and I’m more than happy with it!
Have a look to the Roon support: Server on NAS.
There you’ll find the link to Chris Riekes Webside.
(How do I install Roon on my NAS.)
I made it exact that way.
Best regards
Egon
Just work patiently through the installation procedure, the VM creation procedure, and the Roon Core installation procedure. Use Debian without the desktop. It is solid. All maintenance is by web server interface in TrueNAS or Roon.
TrueNAS 12 docs are a complete rewrite and have gaps. If you run into a void, ask on TrueNAS 12 forum and Engineering will give you a steer to the procedure you need or will give needed commands. I ran into this with a 2FA key that went wobbly.
Note that Roon OS recommendations lag way behind distribution heads. One good reason to use the CLI only version of the distribution. The trouble will be in the desktop and apps you’ll never run.
Note TrueNAS and MacOS Catalina Time Machine works with CIFS. No need for AFP shares. One click check in TrueNAS sets up the share correctly for Time Machine. Will need to have a matching user in TrueNAS Users/Groups.
I’ve been using an iosafe server in my home for over 6 years now and I’ve never had any failure or problem. Their tech support is very helpful (taught me how to install the system as I don’t have a technical background) - it’s been backing up my data and music this entire time. I purchased my iosafe server from Costco; but they also sell direct.
I have the Roon Nucleus + and absolutely love it. Using the Nucleus + with the NAS (and a Tidal subscription) enables my family and me to play any of our music to any room within the house with pristine quality.
Hello. Here is my setup that I have put together over the past few weeks. I followed the beginners guide from RoPieee pretty much to the T. I use the Intel NUC with a 2 terabyte solid state drive and the Raspberry Pi endpoints they tell you how to put together. I have 2 main systems, one is tube based and used only for 2 channel listening. The other is used for general 2 channel listening but also for TV, Roku etc. On this system I use the same CXA61 connected to the Raspberry Pi and it works great. On my tube system I use Raspberry Pi is connected to the SMSL SU-9. The both sound amazing, however the tube system really is at another level.
The final config of the Raspberry Pi’s was a little tricky. I found however that I had missed a couple steps on the RoPieee beginners guide and once I went back and did that it worked. Additionally you can find on you tube videos of folks setting these devices up and those were helpful.
I tried the Bluenote device but I thought it was not a good value for me as it replicated some of the functions of the set up I have now. The Raspberry Pi’s with a 7” touchscreen cost maybe $130 bucks for the hardware and the software is available from RoPieee without charge but they do take contributions. The NUC with the 2 terabyte SSD was about half the price of the ROON branded device.
All in all it was a fun project and I wish you luck.
John
hi TKelley,
Which SFP+ card are you using on Qnap nas?
Hi John,
I’m using this one…
Please note that you will also need a “Direct Attach Cable”. It is NOT a fiber cable. But its called a
Direct Attach Cable. You can buy the NIC that QNAP makes but it is really expensive. If you dig through the QNAP website under TS-473 NAS you can find a compatibility section. That’s where I was
able to find it. Plus a little technical knowledge and a little luck. Didn’t have to do any special configuration just plugged it in and it worked right away,
Hi Tim
Was passing by but wanted to weigh in on 10gb traffic.
Btw Very curious about your 650D. Like it? Have a 600i V2 amp and considering mating the two but it’s a lot of money for an ESS Dac. Settled halfway on an Auralic Vega for now.
Anyhow, my set up:
I did it a little differently. I have a Synology DS1517+ which supports a 2 x 10gb SFP card.
- 1 x 10gb wired from NAS to the switch.
- 1 x 10gb wired from switch to my PC (64mb & 8 cores/16 threads & 2x 10Gb SFP)
The PC 10Gb is then (Windows) bridged with a 1gb SFP fiber direct into a Auralic Vega G2.
The bridge option was required because the Auralic needs a static IP with Internet in order to work. This precluded a static IP/no internet crossover/direct connect cable back to the PC. With the bridge the Auralic gets DHCP IP and internet. The PC hosts Roon so signal is from NAS > Switch > PC > Roon > SFP Fiber to Auralic. As a software defined bridge connection, it may be more efficient than a hardware solution. Hard to measure though.
Note that the switch really doesn’t need any VLan to isolate the NAS-Switch-PC 10Gb connection stream because the NAS has little other traffic than music and switches are by defintion point-to-point traffic anyhow.
I did tie all the equipment grounds together using a Torus Isolation transformer for both Audio and PC power. The Torus is a big part of the puzzle and calms everything down, especially the PC. Highly suggested. Here’s a fun video from a Torus Trade show demo: https://vimeo.com/371419221
Have fun!
John
Thanks for your reply. My intention is to go for the SFP fiber cable for noise isolation. Roon Core on QNAP NAS with a SFP card, fiber cable out to a switch, then RJ45 copper cable to Roon endpoint.
John
thanks for your sharing.
John925,
Not 100% sure but I think I am using a SFP+ port. Not sure I understand the difference between
SFP and a SFP+ port. Just wanted to let you know. Also you should consider running your ROON core
on an intel NUC instead of on your QNAP NAS. I would think that you would get blazing fast system throughput performance from your setup. Also my QNAP NAS has 2 M.2 SSD slots for SSD cacheing which makes things even faster. Fiber transceivers are super expensive. Also I’m using a DAC cable which is a Direct Attach Copper cable.