Moving library to an ssd external drive

Hello folks
Today my library is stored on a 7 year old NAS. My Rock is installed on a powerful NUC (i7).
As big ssd drive start to be affordable, I was wondering if there would be any performance interest to copy my music library on an ssd external to be plugged directly on the NUC?
I was thnikng about overall system reactivity and performance. And maybe audio performance?
Glad to have your opinion.
Cheers

Speed is not so important once the library is indexed and analysed. Depending on the size SSD you need it might be affordable but it its probably not required unless you are needing noiseless operation. SQ wise its debatable if you would hear it or not.

IMHO I have no issue with NAS library 250K+ tracks. If noise is an issue place the NAS or NUC elsewhere from your listening area.

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Thanks for your answer. So except reducing NAS noise, I understand there is no other advantage.

I’m not sure that is correct. I read plenty of post here where people have problems with Roon and their music files on a NAS. Moving those files to an attached SSD can result in solving some of those issues.

Thanks Jim
So far no issue playing from the NAS.
My first idea was to use ssd for ultra high reactivity and if possible SQ improvement. But so far I understand this will not be a game changer or at least it is not worth the cost of a 4to ssd drive :wink:

I think it would have zero impact in SQ.

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Not sure there would be any SQ impact with either a SSD or HDD. Main difference is with a drive attached to the core, any music you add will appear in Roon essentially immediately vs. the NAS situation where it depends on a rescan. I’m in the same boat as you, ageing NAS (six years) and HDDs - do I upgrade the NAS or buy a drive to attach to my core and use the NAS as backup?

I was watching something on YT the other day that said that SSD is more electrically noisy than spinning media…must try and find that and I’ll post it here.

There are two issues here - SSD vs standard HDD and NAS vs direct connection to the Roon Core machine. My experience was that there were problems with NAS that were solved by directly connecting the HDD to the Roon Core machine.

I use a NAS as a backup.

I moved my 13TB library to a USB external 16TB drive on my core and back it up to my NAS where it is also duplicated on another NAS. Previously it was reading it from the NAS. Its faster for rescanning the library but as to SQ I can’t honestly say there is any difference.

Ah here it is in HB’s YT video https://youtu.be/gi8hS-SRUyI?t=418 and actually if you go back to about 6mins some more on USB drives …

I guess do whatever works best for your ears

In the video, Hans said some SSDs have low electrical noise and therefore do not adversely impact on sound quality. So far, I haven’t been able to find much information on this. Be very interested to know which ones are recommended - I expect it will be the expensive ones.

It is a dilemma for me. The NAS is slow and HDD attached to the core by USB is too noisy to have in the listening room. At present core it is not in the listening room, but I want access to its HDMI output.

I was attracted to the SSD option, but held off due to expense. Now I am hearing that they be suspect sound quality wise. Although I am reassured by some of the comments above, an SSD would involve significant cost.

Now not sure which way to go, now. May just reinstate NAS and put up with slowness.

Thanks a lot!
In another post, Danny recommends ssd over nas in terms of user experience. That is enough to convince me :joy:
Is it possible to move library in a different location without loosing all the edited albums, playlist, favorites, bookmarks, and all the things worked on the library? How?
In my case, I want to move library from my NAS to an ssd inside my Rock nuc.
Thanks

I use an i3 NUC with an external USB drive. There’s about 24,000 tracks. I’ve never had any problems with noise, performance or sound quality.

The NUC is connected with CAT5 to the same switch that feeds the stereo Ethernet port.

I don’t know how an SSD drive would be compared to a mechanical type, but I suppose as the SSD costs come down they might become more viable.

I can see an SSD for a computer, that makes a real difference in search/retrieval times but when playing a music track there just isn’t a lot of processing needed, and most, if not all of the track is likely held in memory anyways.

You are conflating two different things.

Roon’s library (database) is on your boot drive, not on your NAS. Roon’s library is where all your edits, playlists, favorites, bookmarks, etc. reside. AFAIK, that has to remain on your boot drive.

If you have your music files on the NAS, then of course you can move them to wherever you want.

As has already been said here, the amount of data being streamed from your nas during playback is so small that it won’t matter if the music is on rotating hdd’s or an ssd. An ssd is noiseless, though, unlike spinning drives and hdd drive heads

I understand, thank you.
But as the address of my music files will change. Will roon library automatically recognize the content and associate all changes that were achieved when on previous location?
For example, I have added pictures manually for some artists that were not in Roon initially. I also hidded some content that I don’t want to show up again, and of course playlist and bookmarks that are very useful

A brief search turned up this article

Thanks very much, it looks easier than I would have thought.
Then I will need to configure my NAS to back this files up en periodical basis.
Thanks Slim

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In general, SSD is a waste of money for media storage. I have my Roon Server and database on an SSD, but my tunes are all on an 8TB 5400RPM disk (mirrored for redundancy). There is no perceptible delay when navigating, starting tracks, skipping tracks, etc – even for the huge 24/192 stuff. Any delay from searching is due to having Qobuz and Tidal turned on and waiting for the results from them.