Hmm, I’m not sure that’s true. The Intel data sheet is unclear about that. If you get this NUC, check back in with the info.
This vendor’s customization only gives options for two drives.
BTW - A GEN12 i7 NUC is profoundly over spec’d for ROCK (now or in any conceivable future) but that’s your choice.
As I said, it has 2 m.2 slots one is used for Wifi. According to the intel website
I’ll write to Intel and ask the question. If the answer is no, would it be best to dedicate the M.2 SSD for the OS and the 2.5’’ SSD for the library?
Yes. Although as I mentioned before, you would probably be better off with just the OS drive and an external usb hdd.
That is correct
BTW, well aware this is OTT (Over The Top as my British colleagues would say :-)), just assessing the art of the possible for now, reality tends to kick in when it’s time to pay…
Sure…
You saw this line in the specs
But, you might not have grokked this part of the specs:
There are 3 PCIE, Key M (SSD), Key B (SSD) and a Key E which is an M.2 used for wireless. Note that I drew a mark between the two for the wireless.
These are physically different connectors, (i.e. the 22x80, 22x42 and 22x30). It might be possible to remove the internal Wifi card, and buy adapters that would let you use the Key E for an SSD. I believe that is talked about here in a tinkering blog (Replacing a Wifi card with an PCI-e SSD).
The blog also has a brief run down of the different cards with pics to see the diff shape/sizes and their general usage. (storage vs wifi vs bluetooth)
Thanks for the clarification, so you can indeed have 2 M.2 SSD, one that’s a NVMe 80mm and one SATA 42 mm.
Looking at the installation guide p.10-11, (https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/intel-nuc/NUC12WSH_L10_UserGuide.pdf), I get the impression you can fit both a 80mm and a 42mm M.2.
Going that way, I guess you would install the OS on the SATA SSD and your library on the NVMe SSD.
SATA and M.2 are two different things.
No, exactly the opposite. Not sure if it can even be done the way you suggest.
This KB article will answer your questions about ROCK install.
Impressed it can take 2 M2 SSDs
You would certainly need one for the ROCK OS/ Database - 128G is plenty - but hard to buy one that small these days.
For ROCK media storage - assuming the OS works (and I imagine it will - but you will need to test) you can use either a second M2 or a SATA.
An M2 is faster than a SATA - but I suspect it doesn’t matter much in that role. I compared a SATA SSD vs a spinning SATA drive in a ROCK - and it didn’t seem to make much difference.
I think ROCK keeps all the critical data in memory and on the M2 OS drive, so the performance of the media drive is less critical.
I’d be tempted to use the two M2 drives if there isn’t a price penalty just because you can - but would be very surprised if you could notice a performance advantage.
I expect that machine is already a top performing roon core, and will be idle most of the time anyway!
Enjoy - and let us know how it goes.
Why would anyone hassle the boondoggle of modifying the WiFi M.2 connection to be able to use an SSD when there is a SATA connection for a SSD? There’s no operational difference between the two.
There’s 2 slots for M.2 storage xxx:
Never the less, might as well go w/M.2 NVMe for the OS and a 2.5’’ SSD for the library.
Thank you all for your inputs, much appreciated!
Not really. Not without some modification. Guess you didn’t see this.
Maybe you should write Intel and ask. I’m out. Have fun.
Check out Rugby’s post.
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/nuc-with-one-or-two-m-2-ssd/233259/12?u=jim_f
Realistically the only need for an SSD is silence and if internal a compact small unit as a Core , which a NUC will nearly give you . Data transfer rates we are talking about is irrelevant even 192/24 is so slow relatively.
I have a NUC 10i7 which has a 4Tb SATA SSD inside and a 5tb Western Digital USB externally mounted , USB powered . In use you cannot detect which is in use , they are essentially identical in use. This sits on my desk and apart from boot and loading files is essentially silent.
Why worry 
As @Rugby says, there are three M.2 slots; two for storage and one for the wifi card.
However, for best performance, Roon OS should be installed on an 80mm NVMe card. I don’t even know if Roon OS can/will use the second 40mm 2242 slot as Internal Storage for your music. Even if it does, the capacity of 40mm M.2 2242 cards is not sufficient for a decent sized library. Far better to use an external USB drive, or a 2.5" SSD/HDD mounted in the “H” model on the NUC.
Here’s an explainer of the different types and keying of M.2 cards:
Thanks Geoff, checking on Amazon, 2TB seems to be the largest M.2 22x42 SATA SSD you can get.
On the Intel chat, I did get the confirmation that you can mount an M.2 22x42 and an M.2 22x80 in this NUC.
At the end of the day, since the benefit of the M.2 ‘horse power’ is really with the OS, as many of you have indicated, regardless of cost, it is probably not a benefit overall to have the library in the M.2 22x42.
Hi, Richard, my migration was similar to yours but my choice was to store the music files in a Synology unit. The NUC only runs the Rock Core. I bought a second hand unit with i5 processor, 8Gb RAM and 256 Gb SSD (double than needed) for 125€. Roon is way faster now that in my Mac when searching the albums, artists or songs and the size of my music library is about 10500 albums and 140000 songs in FLAC 16bit - 44.1 kHz (I have about 100 albums in 24bit too). The size I´m using right now is a bit less than 5TB with still 1,6TB to grow.
Both things, the NUC and the Synology, are quiet and very low power consuming. Is easy to find Synology units at cheap prices second hand. Mine is a DS213j, for 2 HD and cost me only 75€ with 1 HD of 1,8TB and another of 1TB. I upgraded it changing the last one for a new 4TB HD for 40€, so my total storage space is now 5,8TB. You always have the option to upgrade if you need more space or if you like to have a backup of all your files. And you can use it also to have your own personal Cloud without paying for external services. You even can play your music on the move without use the Roon ARC App using the Synology App “DS Audio”.
If for some reason one day your NUC is down you always will have the option to run Roon again from your Mac indexing the music files stored in the Sinology.
I purchased this with 16GB RAM a few weeks ago and installed ROCK. A couple of weeks later i installed this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZYQ84CM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Easy install and set up. It works beautifully. I have never heard the fan other than after I loaded all my music on the SSD and the ROCK was analyzing.
May be over powered… but like you I didn’t mind spending a small amount extra for the additional horse power.
