Hello~ I have been using Roon since 2015 and I always think it was right decision to change from sooloos to roon!
Anyway, what I am trying to say is that I started Roon early and since I started this early, number of my gears are becomming outdated including my NUC.
Back then, Roon had limited functionalities (at least compared to present) and I thought i3 was more than enough to handle roon core so decided to be economic, but it appears the demand for more powerful cpu is going up with intro of new roon features such as DSP, etc.
CPU on my “outdated” NUC is I3-4010u, and currently running Win7 but planning to migrate to ROCK soon. Do you think it’s worth upgrading my NUC to recent model with I5 and up CPU, or should I keep it as is and buy me a 12v linear power supply instead which is about the same wrt money I am willing to spend for upgrade.
A new i5 will future proof you for the forseeable future and be supported with ROCK. Your gen 4 NUC will not be although it will work.
A DC upgrade is useful if you connect direct to the NUC via USB, but benefits are much harder to discern if you use end points.
Ultimately I think you need to compare the Roon recommendations against your use case and see if you really think you need more than an i3, but a modern i5 will give you plenty of power and future proof your Roon setup. And you can still add linear power when the purse allows if that is something you really want to try.
Only you can decide but if it were me I would continue to use your current nuc until it was no longer up to the job. I wouldn’t bother with a linear power supply for the nuc.
I’m a Roon newbie, but reckon it is probably worth giving ROCK a go on your NUC, even if it precedes those that are officially supported. It is very light weight, so if it works then it has the best chance of extending the life of your older NUC. Take a disc image of your current setup then if ROCK doesn’t work you can always head straight back to where you were.
Note that ROCK seems to format ALL internal drives, so make sure you also back up your music if this is also stored on your NUC.
@Cujo note if you do run rock on your old NUC you could always deploy it as an endpoint in the event it runs out of puff and you migrate to a current version NUC and ROCK.
I guess I will just main status quo for now and work on installing ROCK first, which seem to be quite a challenge for newbs.
I am using Meridian MS200 as end point (which is already connected to 5v super linear power supply) connected to Meridian DSPs, so this means I don’t really need to feed NuC with linear power?
I wouldn’t bother with the LPS. Rock isnt difficult. Just upgrade the bios in your nuc to its latest levels and then follow the rest of the instructions to install rock.
I have a 4th gen i3 with 6 zones and DSP in 2 of them. It handles it effortlessly. What are you seeing or hearing that makes you thing you need to upgrade.
