NUC Basic Setup

Im considering replacing my NAS with a NUC and rock software.I know very little about NUCs and have a couple of setup questions.

  1. I have 900 FLAC albums on a 4TB WD HD,do I still need to connect the NAS to the NUC and use it as storage.
  2. The SD in the NUC is used for what ? Is this just for the cache ?

I just need a basic connection guide.At present my FLACS are on the spinning 4TB and I also have a back up HD of all my FLACS.I have a 256GB SD in the rear of my NAS for the DATA.
My NAS is linked over the network to a Cambridge 851N Streamer through a CA amp as my endpoint.

Thankyou for reading

paging @support

Hi @stephen_colman ---- Thank you for the post and questions!

I have provided you with a link to our Knowledge Base article that coves the best practices and equipment to use for setting up ROCK on a NUC. Please let us know if it helps and if you have any other questions just drop a flag for support in your response (i.e @support) and a team member will be glad to assist.

ROCK: Getting Started

-Eric

1 Like

Could you tell me would it be beneficial to have my NUC( when I get it) placed physically close to the end point CXN streamer.
Or just have the NUC in place of my NAS and connected through the network to the streamer (all hard wired).
I want to keep the NAS for photos and videos which I stream to TV.Then have the NUC just for music FLAC files.

The NAS is upstairs near my MAC, and my CXN player is downstairs.All is ethernet hard wired.
I didn’t know if sound quality would be affected from the NUC to streamer.
From what I’ve read on hear my FLACS would be a better future proof option stored on the NUC with rock than my ever growing NAS file collection.IS THIS CORRECT ?
There are several people on hear cannot run files to CXN only over airplay .I can run FLACS From NAS to CXN no problem over the network.
Will I definitely be able to using NUC with Rock ?
I don’t want to order all the NUC setup if I’m gonna have problems

Hi @stephen_colman ---- Good to hear from you! Let me see if I can help answer some of your questions :sunglasses:

“Could you tell me would it be beneficial to have my NUC( when I get it) placed physically close to the end point CXN streamer.”

“The NAS is upstairs near my MAC, and my CXN player is downstairs.All is ethernet hard wired.
I didn’t know if sound quality would be affected from the NUC to streamer.”

  • A wise person once told me to never tell a room full of audiophiles what sounds “good” :innocent: However, I have seen numerous users on the Community site separating their servers from their endpoints but this is up to you based on what your needs are.

“From what I’ve read on hear my FLACS would be a better future proof option stored on the NUC with rock than my ever growing NAS file collection.IS THIS CORRECT ?”

  • This is all based on preference. There are many user who are using network based storage devices without issue and like this solution for storing/accessing their musical collection. We also have many user who are woking with external HDDs mounted to their NUCs as well as internal storage in their NUCs. These are all viable options. I will be clear however, that in our knowledge base here our recommendation is to use USB Storage attached directly to the NUC hosting ROCK.

“There are several people on hear cannot run files to CXN only over airplay .I can run FLACS From NAS to CXN no problem over the network”

  • I just checked the Cambridge website along with our Partner Devices Matrix and can see that the CXN is not a “Roon Ready” device, which means that Airplay will be used when communicating with Roon over your network. The other option you have is to put another device between the Roon core and the CXN. This will allow you to stream higher sample rates/bit depths. For example I use a Sonore MicroRendu with one of my DACs at home that is not Roon Ready.

“Will I definitely be able to using NUC with Rock ?”

  • As long as you follow the recommendations made in our knowledge base there should be no issues.

-Eric