For those of you who do not care about voiding a warranty and that are experienced in taking electronics apart (and back together):
Some QNAP devices have a cpu socket that allows replacing the CPU. I tried it successfully on a TVS-471. I swapped the i3 CPU in favour of an i7 (4790T), added 16 GB of RAM and changed the 12 cm cooling fan for a very quiet model by Noctua.
Be warned this took me over 4 hours and there are a lot of screws to loosen.
After everything was put together again:
The CPU is recognised and the temperature is lowered by about 4 degrees. The new CPU also has 10W less power consumption.
I can’t give accurate information about performance. My library is tiny compared to yours:
14392 tracks. 170 GB in Lossless and DSD music files and a 63 GB iTunes library with mostly compressed audio files.
I am upgrading the iTunes music step by step to lossless, to get rid of it one day…
I upgraded the CPU mostly, because I would like to run virtual machines in the background. I will install probably an Arch Linux in there and use bliss as a metadata and filename adjustment tool as well as AirSonos to send Airplay streams to my Sonos speakers. I also need a cubeSQL database for my accounting software and FreePBX for my phone lines. Both will run on the qnap in the future. And another software (I have not decided which one) for home automation.
wow sounds like not much room for Roon the rate you are going.
I think I will have to go and research the QNAP pricing compared to Synology if a processor change is possible - I think J-river also might have a QNAP pkg … lets see if anyone else is up to a QNAP mod
I will watch the Roon Server performance closely. If any of my other application will slow it down. I will readjust my setup.
When you choose a qnap, make sure the CPU is swappable. This is not be doable with all models. There are a lot of upgrade options in qnap forums. They also suggest supported CPUs.
In my case I could have also chosen a i7 4790S cpu. It would be even faster but also more power consuming. I wanted a more power efficient setup and chose the 4790T.
This is interesting @crieke, i will have to check whether the CPU is swappable on my TS-470 Pro. Not that it is in any way slow, but the i3 in mine is also quite power hungry and i do like the idea of more processing for less watts.
Besides, i am still away and am eagerly looking forward to install your native qpkg!
Have anyone looked into performance differences between putting the Roon Core on spinning disk, internal SSD or external USB3.0 SSD?
The devs definitely reccomend putting the Roon database on an SSD and discourage spinning disk storage. I’m not sure where USB SSD stands in that hierarchy, somewhere in the middle I would think. People who have put the database on M2 SSD seem very happy.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I have a quite small library compared to others here. So if I’d say it is running very great and fast on my side, it might be different for people with a large/huge library.
Do you know if Airsonos reduces the source audio quality in any way ?. Such as reducing redbook FLAC to 320 kbps ?. If not, then that’s a fantastic solution!.
As far as I know, AirSonos will receive an ALAC (lossless) stream (due to AirPlay specifications) and forward it to the Sonos speakers. AirSonos does not transcode, but I will verify that again.
If the AirSonos function emulates an AirPort Express the stream will deffo be in 16/44.1 ALAC, if it emulates an AppleTV the stream will be in 16/48khz AAC at an unknown kbps bitrate.
For audio use, the AppleTV and emulators are more or less useless if have half a hearing…
I used the standard heatsink that was used with the i3 processor. I do not think it requires an additional fan, as the current 4790T drains less power. The cpu temperature also seems ok (according to the QNAP System Status). I think it is even lower now…
I am pretty good with disassembly however after watching the you tube video I am cured from wanting to do this upgrade…for now. Looks very complex and just too many screws. I would certainly mess this up as Murphy lives here.
Yes, it involves many screws. I used a sheet of paper (as recommended in qnap forum) with a draft drawing where the screw was sitting before. It was not hard to do the upgrade, but you should bring some time when you do it and not rush through it.
