NUC for standalone HQ player client

Hey, just looking for some confirmation before I buy anything. If I were to get a more powerful NUC like this Phantom Canyon or something similar, would I be able to run HQ Player OS on it then connect it directly to my DAC via usb and control it remotely with HQPD4 or something like that? I’m looking for an option with higher capability for upsampling than just a NAA as most seem to cap out at 768pcm outside of NUCs.

I’ve only just started playing around with HQ player currently. I have an older gen MacBook pro (2013) that I’m using currently just for PCM upsampling currently. But I will likely be getting a new M1 soon (I use it for work and photography as well).

I like the idea of having a seperate device doing the upsampling then I’m free to have my laptop in another room and don’t have to move it around etc. My roon core is currently a seperate fanless NUC in my office.

Just wanted to make sure this would work decently before I spend anything. Open to other suggestions, I figured this would have decent capacity as it’s an i7 and the 2060 could be used for CUDA offload support as well.

Yes that NUC can do what you want. The M1 Mac Mini even more capable.

But you mentioned HQP OS and NAA together here.

Cheap fanless Intel Atom NAAs can handle PCM ~1500kHz like UpBoard Gateway. Quieter than that NUC as it is silent.

What USB DAC are you using by the way?

Has anyone considered the Zotac ZBox C1540 nano for their Roon Core?

The pre-built HQPlayer OS image file didn’t support CUDA. You have to install Ubuntu server (or listed Linux distribution) and install the CUDA Toolkit then build the HQPlayer Embedded for this NUC11 Enthusiast by yourself to gain the 2060’s benefit. It’s fairly easy tho.