Nifty new Rugged Intel NUC (NUCCCHKR)

There’s a neat new NUC v8 (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/boards-kits/nuc/nuc8rugged-nuc8cchk-cchb.html) that is fanless and should be powerful enough for libraries with CDs with little DSP use.

Would be nice if ROCK supported it. I think the issue is that it has a 64gb eMMC drive so ROCK install fails not finding any drive to install the base OS.

The unit has an M.2 expansion slot so that’s also an option but I was going to use that for media.

Of course I can install Linux easily enough - just throwing this out to the Roon team as a suggestion.

Aris

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Just as well. The Celeron CPU probably under-powered for any intensive DSP or multiple endpoints.

No, it’s not underpowered for my use case. As I mentioned, it’s more than fine for CD quality and light DSP (e.g. convolution).

You should purchase a NUC that is specified by Roon to actually work. There is no need to experiment.

Nod, I have other NUC’s that support ROCK outright, but they are somewhat over-spec’ed for my use case.

I, personally, like this unit’s small, fanless, rugged simplicity with good electrical shielding.

That there’s an Intel NUC with 64gb built in eMMC disk suggests that supporting eMMC may be something that ROCK might support in the future. Or maybe not, I wasn’t complaining just suggesting. I suspect that adding a module into the kernel build is “all” that’s required.

Aris

Not sure why you need a ‘ruggedized’ NUC, but here’s the box anyway.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-8-Rugged-Kit/dp/B0816TPF7P/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=intel+nuc+8+rugged&qid=1580780489&sr=8-3
Just add your guts of choice. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Do you want a NUC that works or not?

Actually, NUC8 Rugged Kit, looks pretty nice and it’s rated for 24/7 fanless operation in any imaginable environment. Not sure if ROCK could be installed on it (prolly, it has an M.2), but if so, might make for a great endpoint (ONLY), if not somewhat expensive for one. Of course, you’ve got your Raspberry Pi alternatives that are much cheaper. I’ve got a Celeron NUC with ROCK (non-core installation) used exclusively as an endpoint (mainly multichannel) and it works faultlessly. Of course, for your core, you’d want an approved, more capable NUC.

Personally, I think this particular NUC is unlikely to be added to the list of supported ROCK devices by Roon Labs for the following reasons:

  1. it has a Celeron processor - under spec for use as a Roon Core (although I agree it would be perfectly adequate for use as an endpoint)
  2. it uses eMMC which is substantially slower than an M.2 SSD. Given that a Roon Core requires SSD speeds for its database, this also rules it out for use as a Core.

My vote would be for models from the new ruggedized NUCs from Intel (NUC Elements) with Intel Core CPUs to be added to the list of supported NUCs instead.

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A suitably creative person should be able to find a way to get a ROCK image onto that eMMC. But then the issue would be wether updates would work normally. But because this sits outside their minimum requirements then I doubt Roon would assist.

Aside the discussion on whether the device is fast enough (which for my simple use case it is), I guess the issue comes down only to whether at some point in the future Roon adds support for eMMC - not necessarily because of this device but in general as NUC devices have built in (soldered on main board) storage.

For my needs I’ve happily used ROCK on a low spec device - see ROCK - installs fine on a fitlet-i so I’m confident that this device specifically would be fine as a ROCK server (and of course as an endpoint if so inclined).

Aris

I suppose there is no harm in asking. Good luck! :slightly_smiling_face:

As I mentioned, adding support for eMMC drives in ROCK for NUCs that have them would probably not be too onerous for Roon but probably not the target device spec for their supplied hardware. The install procedure for the community would be generally the same as for other NUCs.

Installing a M.2 drive in the unit and installing ROCK went fine, as a test.

To actually use it with music I then installed a minimal Debian Buster on the eMMC drive and configured the M.2 drive for media, installed Samba, exported that directory and copied all my music across.

Performance is good (for my use case as per above). I’m sure I won’t touch it now almost like a device running ROCK.

But for the non Linux user that simply wants to get their music library into Roon, is not looking to do fancy DSP, with a dead silent, small device with no bright blue lights, at relatively low cost, this kind of Intel NUC device may be a good option for ROCK to support.

But why? Why fool with a minimal device that requires all that? Just look at the list of Roon approved devices and get one. The cost difference is minimal.

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Agree there are other options, but I guess that sometimes it’s just for the fun of it. My sense of fun might not be the general view, but I do find hifi and IT fun and Roon certainly is the convergence!

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I guess it depends on your objective, have fun or listen to music. They may or may not be mutually exclusive with that device.

Nod. I have fun with hifi, IT and listening to music, sometimes concurrently!

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