Any idea how to disable the ALSA devices/drivers?
I now have these listed ‘as connected to my Core’
And don’t want them, as will never use them. My Core is run on the same switch as the NAS units that hold the Music Library etc. and are not anywhere close for physical connection to the Endpoints.
I can’t speak for @Ian_Hudson, but I thought I’d mention that we’ve only tested the NUC11TNHi/3/5/7. Here’s the i3 & i7 on Amazon DE:
We’re also hoping to test the NUC11PAHix soon, which seems to be more widely available.
(P.S to anyone else reading this, you can find Amazon US & UK links for the NUC11 in this article.)
I just heard from my Intel contact, who is sending me the NUC11PA series and the NUC12WS to test.
He said this about the non-TN lines I inquired about:
NUC11PA (an 11th gen Consumer NUC) is over a year old and was severely supply constrained back in the day due to the component shortage. We prioritized its contemporary NUC11TN (11th gen Commercial NUC) for production and thus is far more widely available.
NUC12WS (12th gen NUC) is the latest version of this NUC form-factor, successor to both NUC11PA and NUC11TN.
When I brought up Amazon availability, he laughed and said “its crazy how the global supply chain works”
From Passmark Benchmarks
| NUC5i3 | NUC7i3DN | NUC7i7BN | NUC7i7DN | NUC8i7 | NUC10i3FN | NUC10i5FN | NUC10i7FN | NUC11TNHi3 | NUC11TNHi5 | NUC11TNHi7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest | Nucleus Rev B | Nucleus+ Rev B | |||||||||
| Cores | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Threads | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
| TDP | 15W | 15W | 28W | 15W | 28W | 15W | 15W | 15W | 15W | 28W | 28W |
| Single Thread | 1,241 | 1,391 | 2,261 | 2,156 | 2,575 | 2,265 | 2,231 | 2,457 | 2,688 | 2,721 | 2,800 |
| CPU | 2,166 | 2,722 | 4,256 | 6,359 | 8,743 | 4,004 | 6,400 | 10,086 | 6,232 | 10,039 | 10,141 |
Puts the NUC11TNHi3 as the modern equivalent to the NUC7i7DN used in the Nucleus+, unless you need more than 4 threads.
Then the NUC11TNHi5 seems to be the modern sweet spot, similar single thread as the NUC11i3, NUC8i7 but with the 8 threads.
The NUC11TNHi7 doesn’t seem to bring much more to the party.
The NUC12WS range and the Intel 7 CPU architecture, are now running Performance Cores alongside Efficient cores.
So will be interesting to see how RoonOS within ROCK works with these.
Can a Endpoint with heavy load DSP be pinned or move from an Efficient core to a Performance Core on-demand?
| NUC12WSHi3 | NUC12WSHi5 | NUC12WSHi7 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance Cores | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Efficient Cores | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Threads | 12 | 16 | 16 |
| TDP | 28W | 28W | 28W |
| Single Thread | 3,502 | 3,285 | 3,295 |
| CPU | 15,310 | 17,626 | 17,059 |
Again not sure what the i7 is bring extra to the party.
FYI, I installed ROCK on a NUC11PAHi3 last night - seems to be working…
Thanks for your table, very, very useful! I am right now in the process in deciding with NUC to get.
Have you found out something about the new core architecture since 12th Gen and Roon already?
I also think there are some mistakes in the table or rather Passmark updated their data:
Single thread performance of the NUC12WSHi3/ Core i3-1220P is 3388.
NUC12WSHi5/ Core i5-1240P is 3303.
NUC12WSHi7 / Core i7-1260P is 3353.
I haven’t seen anyone describing their use of a NUC12 or any further reports about how the Kernel manages the workload across the different Core types.
Passmark may have updated, based on further input - the numbers I took were fairly early.
In terms of a NUC to run ROCK, if I was buying today, I would probably go for a NUC 10.
Either as an i3, as I only use one zone for playback at time so the single thread performance is fine, or as an i5 as this provides the same performance as the NUC7i7DN board used in a Nucleus+, which does everything I need and probably sat idling for 99% of the time, only seeing workload when I upload new tracks to my Music Library, which it has to scan using all 8 cores.
I won’t be going for, presumably, the more expensive NUC 11 or NUC 12 models.
Remember NUC 12 is not yet an approved platform for ROCK.
These are on the supported list, albeit without HDMI output:
NUC12WSHi3*
NUC12WSHi5*
NUC12WSHi7*
As far as I understand the NUC 12 is supported, but Gen 13 isn’t yet.
I will probably get an i3 Gen 13 NUC since the single core performance went up and the power consumption went down in comparison to i3 Gen 12 NUC.
I don’t see any use case for an i7, one should consider i3 or i5.
I just can’t manage to find out how to connect a SATA SSD for storage to the Gen 12 or Gen 13 NUCs since the high version state 2.5" drive, but there’s no SATA connector on the mainboards anymore 
Could you not fit 2 NVMe SSDs - one for ROCK Core dB and one for music library storage?
Yes, 2 M.2 SSDs are possible, but while the first M.2 slot is full size M.2 2280, the second one is only M.2 2240, half physical length.
I can only find M.2 2240 with 1TB maximum, but I want at least 2TB, better 4TB.
4TB is not a problem with 2.5" SATA SSDs.
But there’s no SATA port on the mainboard since at least Gen 12 NUCs. But the tall ones have this feature:
“Tall kits only: 2.5” drive bay (15mm SATA) and internal expansion bay via backpanel” Source: Intel.
Also Intel compatibility check shows several 2.5" SATA SSDs.
But I still have to figure out how to connect these exactly, because I can’t find anything via google, youtube and the manuals (Gen 12 and Gen 13).
EDIT: Found it on Youtube: Quick Hardware Installation For Intel NUC Install RAM, SSD, NVME M.2 - YouTube
HI.
You mentioned the 4TB 2.5" SATA SSD’s are not a problem, how about the 8TB one? I’m looking to get at least 8 since I already have almost 4TB of music in my collection (on my Synology NAS) and have to have room for growth. I was looking at getting this NUC for the sole purpose of running the Rock Core: https://www.amazon.com/NUC11PAHi5-Business-Mainsteam-Barebone，Intel-i5-1135G7/dp/B09BKRXXNZ?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1
Does this look like a good choice for my situation? Any big benefit for going for the i7 instead of the i5?
Thanks so much for your help with this Roon Virgin!
If you look through the forum, you’ll see that there are a number of people using an 8TB SSD in their NUC.
If I would be in the market for installing an 8TB SSD into my NUC, I would probably get a Samsung QVO model, because as Danny said:
As for the choice of an i7 over an i5 model, that will depend on your own situation; if you have a large library (12K+ albums) and make use of heavy DSP for multiple endpoints, then you’re looking at the i7…
I agree that 8TB should not be a problem, but I disagree in the other two points.
I know @Music_Lover wants 8TB so he should go with the QVO model, because there is no 8TB Evo drive. But concerning the 4TB drive for example, the difference in price is 5 Euros right now, so there’s no reason to not get the better performing drive with longer lifespan and longer warranty.
It depends on the NUC generation, but what some i7 models offer over i5 models is sometimes not more cores, but only a little more clock frequency. Which causes more power consumption and generates more heat which might cause the NUC’s fan to be too loud for a living room and too hot to build it in a fanless case when it’s otherwise to loud.
If these points are relevant, the question is i3 or i5 (and a closer look at which NUC generation).
Thanks guys for your help. I was definitely looking at the Samsung 8TB QVO Model so that’s already in place. As far as the loudness of the NUC that won’t be a problem as it will not be in the same room as where I will be listening to music.
Now here is also something I want to make sure of before biting this bullet. Currently I have almost 4TB of music and it’s managed through iTunes and stored on a Synology NAS. My idea here is to move all my music to the new SSD drive that will be in the NUC solely running Rock and nothing else. My question is can I still load the iTunes program on the NUC and continue managing all my music (and future music) on the NUC? Again thanks for your help!!
Not if you are going to use ROCK. It installs Roon OS, which is an operating system (based on Linux) built from the ground up to run Roon and nothing else. It turns the NUC into a Roon music appliance; it’s not a general purpose computer anymore.
