If you have successfully booted ROCK, but it does not operate with your network adapter, it’s possible to use a usb to Ethernet dongle to get on your network. A number of users did this with NUC10s before they were supported.
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That could work. But comparing the performance of ROCK on an HDD with a USB network adapter to Windows on an SSD with internal networking is as problematic, if not more so. 
Oh no…I meant to say I tested my ROCK installation for functionality using the HDD. I will see if i have a USB to Ethernet adapter and if its works…the HDD is coming out and being flashed and the Windows SSD is gonna be used for a clean ROCK install and that will remain there!
Can I buy any USB to network adapter and will the BIOS/ROCK detect it when its connected to USB port of the laptop? Thanks
Sure, but you said you would evaluate Ubuntu (and ROCK) on the HDD and only commit to installing either on the SSD if performance is better than Windows. The comparison is not fair due to the vast difference in random I/O performance of HDD vs SSD. Roon’s database requires lots of random I/O. Regardless, good luck with your test.
I’d suggest cloning the Windows installation on your SSD to the HDD (as a backup…presumably, you can clone back later if necessary). Then use the SSD in your evaluations of Ubuntu and ROCK
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Absolutely, thats a brilliant idea!. There are so many cheap renewed 6th Gen i5 PCs available on the internet…i just wanted to try my old laptop considering that if DSD is a single core operation and if my processor (i5 2nd Gen) goes to around 2.53Ghz…maybe newer multicores (that may go upto say 3.2Ghz) wont do me much good (maybe too simple an analogy!)…thats why i wanted to get the max out of my existing equipment. This USB to ethernet adapter is worth trying i guess…
Yes, only if the ROCK doesnt fly at all…it may seem the network problem may have a workaround…
Again, ROCK buys you nothing, in terms of performance, over Ubuntu Server.
Happy to report that the USB to Ethernet Adapter worked! We finally have ROCK…will share the performance on DSD512/256 soon.
And here is the performance at the client end connected to ROCK PC (I5 2nd gen/8GB RAM 12800 bus speed/WD Green 128 GB SSD/Lenovo Z560 Laptop). The ROCK is connected via a USB to Ethernet Adapter to the Router via LAN Cable. The client resource utilization is also shown:
At DSD512:
At DSD256:
What more can you ask for from a 10 year old PC. Between the windows 10 running the Roon server and the ROCK (same laptop)…the performance for DSD256 jumped from 1.5x to 2.4x…not half bad!
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