Looking to replace desktop PC with NUC

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
1

Hi All,

At the moment I am running my Roon server off an ageing i7 desktop computer running Windows 10 Pro and I’m looking to replace it with a modern, less power hungry, design. The Intel NUC with ROCK seems the obvious way to go but I have a few questions …

  1. The PC I’m using at the moment has an internal 4Tb drive with my music collection, the only 4Tb drives that seem to be available in 2.5" form factor are 15mm thick. Has anyone successfully fitted one of these to a NUC enclosure? The Intel documentation states 9mm maximum thickness.

  2. If I can’t fit an internal drive of this size then would an external USB drive perform just as well?

  3. My music collection is backed up on a Qnap NAS so I could point the server to there using SMB, but I have read in these forums that if I use ROCK then any additions/changes to the files can not be picked up straight away and I would either have to force a rescan or wait until a scheduled rescan picked them up. I assume the length of time it takes to rescan is dependent on the library size, I have just under 7000 albums in my collection does anyone have an indication of how long this might take? Minutes, hours?

Thanks

2

Were it me, I would transfer my music to an external HDD drive (yes they work just fine). The internal SDD will keep your OS and server software.

As for the time to rescan, think several meals worth. :slight_smile:

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Hi John
I used a 15mm drive in an enclosure externally with my NUC and it was fine. I now use a smaller 9mm drive inside the NUC with no noticeable change in performance. If you want to spend money, as far as I know SSDs are all 9mm thick, so you could migrate to one of those. Makes for a nice, neat solution, using the internal slot.

Michael

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You are limited to a 9 mm thick drive, so your option is to use a USB caddy. I use an external USB C connected HDD, and it works fine. For compatibility, use exFAT so you can easily add music to the drive later (it is also exposed over Samba.)

ROCK can read the music directly from the Qnap, but some people have experienced problems picking up changes. You’ll probably have a better experience using a USB drive; use the Qnap as a master copy, and then have a separate backup.

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I have a NUC and a NAS on the same Ethernet switch. Watching in real time does not work, but a 4000 album forced rescan to acquire new adds takes 45-60 seconds.

AJ

2 Likes
6

Thanks, that’s reassuring.

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Thanks for the info everyone.

I’m thinking I may put the existing 4Tb drive into a caddy and connect via USB.
Will I need to format the drive as exFAT from the NUC running ROCK, or could I do it in the existing PC and copy the music back before I remove it?