The “PRO” label makes it sound fancy too. LOL.
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@Zoran_Vlah how is/did your instal go. I’m planning to do one and have been researching the hardware. It seems there are few i5’s available and I believe Intel has stopped producing NUCs.
I have been running Roon on my three-year-old i5 iMac for a couple of years, but would prefer it on a standalone box.
I found a YouTube video on loading the software, but there are always bits they omit. For example, I guess the NUC doesn’t have Bluetooth so I could not use my keyboard and would have to borrow or buy one. Then that always programs you have to download in order to extract something you have to download and they never quite work. So for someone with no computer expertise, how easy is it to get it working. Is there a reliable set of instructions somewhere?
@David_Snyder your list is very helpful, but I wondered why you went for such a large flash drive which is what I think you mean by a thumb drive. I guess so you can use it for other things later. And again, if you knew of some useful instructions, that would be appreciated. I’ve tried most things like decorating, servicing my car, building walls and acting as my own estate agent and solicitor when moving house. So I’m inclined to give it a go. But those tasks were all informed by clear and accurate instructions.
I only really use roon for doing a bit of DSP to counteract excessive base from room modes and when it talks about headroom, it suggests I’ve got 50-70 times more power than I need is there an i3 would probably be ample, although I am inclined two over specify, but it would seem total overkill to go for an i7.
Also, if anybody is in the UK, to the NUCs, come with a UK power cord? Some seem to come with no cord and some with a foreign one, neither of which is very helpful.
And finally, I’m not clear how I move the data, I’ve accumulated on my Mac over to the new NUC: what I have read on the Roon site makes it so much more complicated than if starting from scratch. But I guess you have to perform that trick, even if you buy a ready-made Nucleus. Incidentally, how does the spec of them compare to the highly spec’d kit being discussed here.
My thanks in advance
I think I posted some calculations somewhere, but I estimated that I need around 90 GB to keep 20 backups of my Roon database. So 128 GB is about right…and it was not much more expensive than smaller capacities.
Feel free to PM me if you’d like to hop on a Zoom call so that I can walk you through the steps.
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@John_Carlyle
I haven’t started yet. Just ordered hardware and I hope I am going to install it next weekend.
As far as procedure goes (that’s what I understand, it is my first NUC/ROCK instalation):
- update BIOS
- configure BIOS (security, boot order…)
- download ROCK image
- make USB stick bootable with ROCK image on it
- boot from USB
- install ROCK
- make back-up on your present core
- restore your backup on the new NUC
Maybe I’ve missed something…
What can possibly go wrong… famous last words. 
I expect some hit and miss migrating my few ripped CDs…
As I said, I had never tried this, and expect that backup on old win machine and restore that backup on NUC shouldn’t be a problem.
I can let you know when I am finished. Only depends if I get the hardware till Friday.
You forgot the download and copy the ffmpeg file over to the ROCK PC.
A Pro Tip, you can get the BIOS Update and USB Stick with ROCK and ffmpeg setup before hand, so you are not doing at the same time you are putting the PC together.
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Another Pro Tip: F7 BIOS update method requires that you format your thumb drive as FAT32. This is easy if the drive is 32 GB or smaller. But if it’s larger, you’ll need to create a 32 GB or smaller partition first. This is easy to do in Windows Disk Management. I’m less familiar with how to do the same on macOS, but I’m sure Google can help.
You don’t have to worry about cleaning up the partitions after the BIOS update. When you flash the drive with the Roon OS boot image, Etcher (or similar) will take care of that.
If you have music files that are local to the machine that’s currently running Roon Server, you’ll have to decide how you will make those accessible by the new server. If they are on an external USB drive that has been formatted with exFAT, you can just move that drive to the new NUC.
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Have you watched this video , its pretty step by step. You need to skip in a bit to the meaty bits but he deals with the software load
It’s pretty simple and straight forward
Link isn’t working. 
Try this one
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That works. Thanks. 
Follow-up:
First, thank you all for tips. That one to make 32GB partition for BIOS update is lifesaver. 
Everything went smooth except installing codec. Windows 10 has a problem with guest login to SMB so it took me some time to figure out how to copy codec to ROCK/data/
- don’t panic
- google (there are several sites with explanations, I really forgot which one worked for me)
- keep trying…
Note: with my win pc that I use for work, whatever I did I couldn’t connect to ROCK\data folder because of strict security policies!!! With my home computer, with some fiddling, I succeeded after some hit and miss…
@John_Carlyle
Just follow instructions (roon official, yotube videos, this forum), it is not that difficult. But can be a little frustrating with codec installation (which is, in fact, copy paste of only one file).
If you are using MAC, maybe you will not have that problem!
For bluetooth contentions for keyboard/mouse, I really wouldn’t know because I don’t need it. I guess it is enabled by default in NUC (depending on NUC). With USB (wireless) keyboard/mouse works without problems.
Hope it helps.
Edit: with another win pc (win 10 home ed.) I didn’t have any problems conecting to rock/data
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I was debating about buying this from Amazon. Any advice?
Intel NUC 11 Panther Canyon Mini PC, 11th Intel Core i5-1135G7, 16GB RAM & 512GB SSD, Windows 11 Pro, Support 4K Quad Display, WiFi 6, VESA/Home/Business Mini Desktop Computer $729 Canadian
I think I found the right listing. The listing also gives the NUC model number, NUC11PAHi5, and this is on the official support list, so all good:
However,
- If you are going to install ROCK, your don’t need a Windows license to pay for
- The listing does not say which SSD model is built in
Therefore, you may be better off choosing a „barebones“ version of the NUC, without Windows, SSD, or RAM. Then add an SSD of your choice and RAM (pick 2x8 GB rather than 1x16)
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Right now, all I’m using is my laptop for a server, so I thought a dedicated NUC would be a better option.
I thought I needed a built in hard drive. Bottom line. If I plug my laptop into this and load Roon, will I be up and running?
You need a hard drive, but instead of buying a built-in unknown model, you can buy a NUC without one and choose the model you want (which may be better than the built-in one but we don’t know what the built-in one is).
The Samsung 980 PRO and the 970 EVO Plus are both good choices. Reliability is the same for both models for the same size. The Pro is a bit faster but it’s probably not significant. The Evo is available in 250 and 500 GB, the Pro just as 500GB. 250 are more than enough space, but the larger size brings even more reliability. So in the end it comes down to the prices you can get and what you want to spend.
Or ask the seller of your listing which SSD is built-in and google it or ask on the forum if it’s a good choice.
You need:
- A Roon Server, which can be the NUC. If you want to install ROCK on it (which is the topic of this thread), then you will need to install ROCK:
(Or buy the NUC with Windows and install the Windows version of Roon on it)
- Your laptop can then be used as the remote control device. Point Roon to using the Roon server on the NUC. However, you don’t „plug your laptop into this“; instead, you connect both the NUC and the laptop to the network.
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There are barebones NUC11 i7 of the same generation on Amazon for $399. With a Samsung 980 pro NVme 500Gb drive and 16Gb memory you’ll be under $500 and get a higher spec machine
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If I go this route, and I know this is a dumb question, but how do I get Roon on the NUC? Do I usb it once and load the software on dnd then it’s done?
As described here:
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@Stacy_Gallant
Please read this topic from the beginning. Everything is written here. Just follow this, check videos and you are ready to go.
If you get stuck, I am sure that somebody will help.
I just installed ROCK (to make it easier for you - ROCK is linux like OS with Roon), just had that problem at the end with ROCK/store folder, but it is very specific for me (because security policies).
The hardware I used is described above also (I only used 2x8 GB RAM) and did not install second (storage) SSD because I do not need it right now.
And if you are going to upgrade BIOS, be patient and DO NOT turn off or restart the NUC. You will know when it is finished. It takes about 5 minutes, so be patient.
After you are done with everything (ROCK is installed) you have to ‘disconnect’ your old core and declare NUC with ROCK as a new core, because with subscription you can run only one core.
Do that backup/restore part (as described above).
Install Roon on your PC (Win, Mac), phone, tablet, and when you start them for the first time ‘declare’ that NUC is your new core. After that all is the same like before…
Hope it helps!