In fact don’t I know that either! I just need a new computer really so if I have ROCK or not, well…
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that box will be awesome, ROCK or not.
the motherboard you chose will have the greatest impact on whether it will work with ROCK, as most of the drivers are related to power management, and networking.
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Perhaps going with an Intel board is most likely to be the better option if they are still making motherboards for socket 1511 etc assuming you have no interest in going the nominated NUC route. No need for special things like wifi on board etc anyway.
personally I am getting the NUC7i7BNH and M.2 8GB Ram so I should be future proof for a while.
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What happened with the Streamcom FC8 case and the i7-7700?
It’s working beautifully…its just 65W TDP same as the i5-6500 that it replaced and the case can deal with up to 95W so not expecting any issues…Also running headless so net expecting any GPU heat generation.
I just hate windows and the security risks it presents on an ongoing basis. This is my primary reason for looking to ROCK as a Roon base.
whats the deal about Case (I ignored for some time) for NUC. Do we get NUC internals without the NUC shell only? or buy NUC as is with complete Shell but somehow we can un-screw stuff inside and put it in a case?
can you provide me with some links and how to do it ?
I believe that at one time Intel made the earlier generations of the NUC boards available to the retail channel, so that the end consumer could buy just the board without the case. Intel no longer seem to be doing this (although clearly board-only options are available to the OEM channel), so we can only buy the complete NUC model, disassemble it, put the board in a fanless case, and throw the Intel NUC case away… 
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I would choose i5-7600 over i7-7700 because it runs cooler and will give you almost the same performance for most workloads.
I have a new i5 NUC with a Akasa Newton S7 fanless case. You need to buy a new NUC and there is a YouTube video how to mount the board in the case. Not difficult.
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First, disclosure:I worked at Microsoft for some years in kernel support.
About Windows and security exposures: Windows has a huge installed base, and so Windows attracts people trying to break in. Windows has a very large company dedicated to Windows success. I incline to Windows as the OS for Roon because – I think – I’m likely more safe with an OS where exposures will be detected quickly and fixed quickly. Put differently, the Roon organization has earned my respect for music software, and Microsoft, for OS software. So I am going with demonstrated strengths.
The problem is that Windows was also designed to be general purpose, which opens it up to a lot of issues that can totally be avoided if your goal is to do 1 thing: run Roon.
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I’ve thought of that. But isn’t ROCK based on Linux, also a general-purpose OS? Even if that Linux has been pared down, surely its general-purpose architecture/structure remains, and with any involved thing, it’s very difficult to know every possibility has been understood.
Linux is not an OS – Linux is a kernel.
Where as many others in our industry start with a Linux distribution and pare it down, we started from scratch and it has only exactly what is needed to run RoonServer. Your assessment of their OS would be true, but ROCK is much trimmer thing.
ROCK runs almost nothing other than RoonServer, it boots in under 2 seconds, even things like the SMB server has been trimmed to only need the basics for exactly what you need to run RoonServer and work with ROCK.
I just explained this over here:
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I work in a mission critical environment. We use Windows for productivity but it goes nowhere near the critical applications.
I run Rock on a fanless Intel NUC i5 7th Gen and it’s faster then Roon Core on Windows 10 (tuned with Fidelizer Pro). The response from the remotes (iPad/iPhone/Surface) is realtime…
That’s because I tuned the kernel for everything in mind for Roon. Buffer sizes, TCP state change timeouts, resource allocation, etc…
You can’t do all this on Windows, and you wouldn’t want to on a general purpose Linux machine. But because ROCK runs RoonServer only, the experience can be made much better.
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This is the very reason why I m interested in Rock-NUC combo.
Apart from tech stuff you guys are discussing, It’ was ALWAYS painful for me to START MAC/windows and then start Roon, then to music, maybe stupid reason for me why I did not want to buy NUC. im frequent ON-OFF guy on my audio gear. Hence I like concept of ROCK. Trying my best to wait patiently for 1month from today.
I’m treating the Music Server system almost akin to my AV processor (also based on a linux build interestingly) and pretty much as a one task appliance (yes I know its doing a lot more than say my microwave) but I want it as lean as possible, even hidden away if it makes some noise - tho I have other things making much more noise than a NUC like A/C and ceiling fan either of which in the 24-36 degree C ambient temps I am stuck with 24hours a day. These I can’t really remove from the room especially when opening the windows in apartment style living with close proximity to other blocks is the norm here in Singapore.
When my i5-4570 iMac can out pace my i7-7700 PC for DSP upsampling to DSD there is more to think about than just the security aspect too. Especially as often there are more than 1-2 streams running elsewhere in the house.
Give me a dedicated OS for my Roon anytime…even over OSX
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Same==to==Same in Bangalore India 
I want to thank everyone who have spent time, to coming with suggestions on that “New Hardware that shall I chose” ! Extra thanks to you who have shared your own stuff 
.
But it wasn’t my idea with my question, that should starting discuss NUC against XXX! Windows against IOS and Linux (kernel)!
Because that doesn’t help me out exactly!
It’s making more confusing!
So now I have, that hardware I shall chose, what software I shall use to my hardware 
!
So I’m more confused than before, my old pc laptop seems to be the best alternative to me, for a little bit time more 
.
In this jungle of NUC or not NUC! Windows or iOS or a Linux that isn’t a OS but Kernel!
I don’t know about you who use Roon! Are you only upgrading your hardware and software? Or do you upgrade your hifi/high-end systems as well? My latest upgrade is earth my system with a Swedish company Entreq! Earth boxes and different earth cables, to my amp, DAC, even my USB cable from my laptop, a special earth box with a earth cable with a USB connection to a USB in my laptop! A Rj45 connection to my NAS! Special feet for my equipment, even my laptop, NAS and my router!
With out the Entreq products my speakers gave a lot of fizzy sounds and like someone send Morse, through my speakers when I turned up my amp just to 9 o clock! But now can I turn my amp on full volume and it’s totally quite in my speakers !
Do you you get totally silence from your NUC’s either you run windows, iOS or Linux? Nothing from your NAS or router, now data or internet sounds?
Haven’t you already Entreq products or have heard of them, check it out!
My internet signals are even working better so does the music from my NAS I have now dropouts, when I use Roon! So even Roon works better than before, if I play from TIDAL and there new Masters (MQA), ripped cds and DSD files from my NAS, and this on my old pc laptop I don’t want to think how great it will sound with a new NUC or Mac mini, with Windows, iOS or Linux!
So don’t forget that it’s the hole system, from your hifi/high-end music system true your router and NAS to the computer everything must work perfect! Because if it doesn’t do what so doesn’t your extreme computer, get the best out of your music!
I wish everyone here on the Roon Community a great weekend, Anders