MOCK - Tell us what strange gear you've installed ROCK on!

I use a DN2820FYKH as a core. Works fine for me.

Just FYI, I needed to connect a USB keyboard as the laptop keyboard wasnā€™t functional when bootingfrom the flashdrive. Other than that, no issues, Iā€™m listening to it now.

A nuc is probably more elegant, but Windows was refusing to boot, so after a bit of unsuccessful cajoling I sent the MS filesystem packing and successfully installed ROCK. Itā€™s possible that the drive is not SSDā€¦

2 Likes

This is classed as a MOCKā€¦perhaps it will be moved to #tinkering

Thanks, noob, happy to be schooled.

ROCK ā€¦ can run on a lot of platforms with simple intel supported chipsets (maybe others too) and non supported platforms get called affectionately MOCK by the folks here who run them. I have a couple I use as endpointsā€¦one on a very slow and silent Intel D510MO setup as I had it for many years like the idea of playing with something using native Roon endpoint that was more powerful than a RPi to see if there was any differenceā€¦None that I can hear. YMMV

1 Like

I found my silent de3815 to be vastly superior with ROCK installed and outputting via usb than any pi with Ropieee.

I think iā€™ve missed something regarding the use for Rock/Mock.
I run my Core on a Ubuntu Miniserver in a VM on KVM, My music is on a NAS drive to which my Core connects via NFS.
Can someone tell me what benefits I would get by exchanging my KVM Ubuntu core with a Rock/Mock setup on KVM?

I donā€™t think it has much use for you, if you are happy with running Roon server in Linux or a NAS natively or in a VM.

Because of networking issues, I tested running Roon server natively on CentOS, in a Windows 10 KVM VM, and a MOCK in a KVM VM to compare the connectivity with a Roon remote.

From that I found that the easiest thing from a performance and maintenance standpoint is for me to run Roon server in Linux, either using local storage for the library or an NFS volume (because that is infrastructure that I already run and maintain, with or without Roon).

A ROCK is useful for folks that do not have experience running a server (be it Linux or Windows) in their homes, or ofcourse those that specifically want a ROCK. And a MOCK is not really useful for those that do have that level of expertise, as a MOCK in essence limits you because of its very restrictive (and thus easy to maintain for those that value that) implementation.

1 Like

Thanks for the quick answer.
I agree about the simplicity of using NFS when the infrastrukture is already is implementet in the NAS. My experience is that NFS is both faster and less resource intensive than SMB.

I will stick to my present Ubuntu VM

Nothing its more of a benefit if running on its own system, makes for a very stable core that is dedicated to one thing and does it incredibly well.

After having used Roon since October 2019, it was time to move it off the old 2011 iMac. I had a HP EliteDesk 800 (2.9 GHz i5, 4 GB RAM, 120 GB SSD) that had been running KODI for a while.

After making sure UEFI was disabled, and the boot order was set as recommended in the doc for setting up a NUC, the install was completely without hassle.

  • Installed ROCK
  • Added ffmpeg
  • Copied music to an external USB disk.
  • Fresh backup of DB from the iMac imported on the HP.
  • Music folders pointed to the new locations on the external USB disk.
  • Pointed the Squeezebox Touch to the ROCK in order for it to be recognized.

Everything has worked 100% flawlessly. There is probably an Intel network module in this computer, and itā€™s similar enough to a NUC for it to be usable for quite some time - only thing I donā€™t like is that itā€™s a bit noisy by 2020 standards - that small fan sounds a bit ā€œsourā€.

Current library is 928 lossless albums, 1407 various bits and pieces of MP3 albums (mostly kept for nostalgic reasons), and some 103 Tidal albums added for good measure. I suspect a computer with an i7 will come in handy for larger collections and/or my use of DSP will increase.

All in all, a HP EliteDesk works flawlessly - canā€™t see what would break in the future, but at that point Iā€™ll go for either a NUC or a Nucleus (or +). The ROCK is really the way to go - no need to run a fat OS underneath.

4 Likes

This sort of thing?

2 Likes

Biggest difference is probably that mine is a bit older - it has still one of those laptop optical drives.

1 Like

Cheap way of doing it.

I run Roon Core now on my Core i5 2017 Macbook Pro, streaming to a Bluesound Node 2i and it runs FINE. I can do all DSP that I need to do and there are no issues with dropouts, delays, or other problems.

My library is currently 600 CDs but I am ripping more. I also use Tidal/Qobuz a lot so Iā€™m not sure Iā€™ll ever exceed 2000 CDs.

It might be nice to have a dedicated machine, since I use the laptop for general purposes and I thought there might be some benefit to a dedicated Roon server machine. Also, I could leave it running all the time. It would be downstairs (where the laptop is) while my listening room is upstairs, so PC appearance and fan noise are of no concern.

Mainly I am asking the community: Can ROCK be installed on something like this as opposed to a NUC? This is cheaper, and a little easier.

Or just use Windows 10 on the PC and donā€™t worry about it? This PC would never ever be used for anything else other than Roon Core.

Hi @Doug_Hannah,

This thread is the most likely place to find out if anyone knows.

1 Like

Yes, no issues. I did a ROCK install on a Dell Optiplex 7010 a while back. You can find performance figures and power consumption in the Performance Matrix thread, link in the top post:

(The performance spreadsheet also shows almost identical performance using Win10, only a few watts more)

1 Like

Extremely helpful, and I did not know about this spreadsheet. Thank you for the assist!

1 Like

If the performance is essentially the same, I may just opt to run the core on Win 10 and enjoy it rather than try to make a ā€œMOCKā€

Try to run ROCK if at all possible. It will take a bit of time and effort but it is effort at the front end rather than the effort needed to maintain Windows on what will essentially be a dedicated server.

2 Likes