Good to hear. Is fan noise a significant issue?
The trick is the buy an Akasa fanless case. They are awesome and 100% silent even upscaling to DSD 256 which used to make the old NUC scream.
Do mine is in my study where I constantly work with nothing but the music to enoy
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So I’m assuming I buy the NUC that’s been suggested and switch it to the Akasa case? Is that relatively straightforward?
I don’t think it would have been in my case. The NUC is in the living room where the main HiFi and home cinema system live. Until last year my fanless NUC had an internal HDD for local music storage, and I never was bothered by noise from that. I’ve since swapped it out for an SSD to get more capacity, not because an SSD is silent.
- but then again, unlike @Michael_Harris, I don’t do any upscaling, just have some DSP on the Quads.
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That sounds like another discussion for another day 
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Took me about an hour to put into a case with just a screw driver and minimum tools.
One of the problems I had with both my Nuc’s in my study and living room over time was that they attracted dust into the grills which used to get a bit clogged and that made the noise worse as it tried to move the heat off.
Without upscaling as Geoff said there was little fan noise even when running two or three zones, but once I started upscaling I read the forums some, found the Akasa cases and decided I had to have one. It’s a piece of Art Decor now and looks and works great.
Don’t buy one to start, you will know if you want/need one, but if you doo it is easy enough for anyone that can put an Ikea unit together to do.
Michael, that’s really helpful. Very reassuring.
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Are you planning to plug it directly into your DAC/Amp via USB? (nought wrong with that approach btw)
If not, and your amp is Roon Ready, or your using a endpoint/network bridge running Roon Bridge (like RPi/Ropieee) then just hide the NUC out of the way/out of sight in another room / closet next to your router. That way it doesn’t matter how noisy it is btw. I have never found my NUC to be particularly noisy even in the standard case.
Not sure if it’s clear already, but expanding on Geoff’s post above you have RAM and Hard Drives (storage).
For the hard drives you need an (relatively small) 64GB or 128GB M.2 SSD drive for Roon OS and your Roon database. No music files are stored on this drive.
But can also optionally add a much larger (ie terabytes/TB sized) traditional/mechanical 2.5” hard drive inside the full height NUCs (ending in the letter H) to store your music files.
You can also just attach a external USB hard drive to either model and store your music files there.
Or if your music files are already living elsewhere in your network ie a NAS you can just point Roon running on the NUC that network shared music folder…
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In my mind with multiple computers around the house of all varieties, Rock on a NUC is the best way of running Roon.
Other perfectly reasonable ways are available, but for me and many others it has been the most hassle free.
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My principles:
- ROCK (or Nucleus, but that’s too expensive for my taste) is the closest way to run Roon core as an appliance. Invest the time to build one, and forget it. I have an i5 with an external ssd in one house, and an i7 with an internal one in the other. I’ve flirted with running my core on my NAS in a docker container & did for a while just because I could, but that’s a terrible reason to do someone. Roon recommends ROCK for an awfully good reason - it just works. I keep saying that they should get rid of other problems for simplicity’s sake, but in my own environment it’s best just to take their advice. Go ROCK
- Attach your Roon core to your core switch via Ethernet. That means if you have a server closet or a cable modem attached to a switch somewhere it goes plugged in there, not somewhere else in your network. As close to the “center of the star” as you can get. You don’t need to learn too much about network topology, but getting this right is a big deal. Don’t do it and you will regret it. If it works without, great, but this is one that bites people all the time.
- invest in a streamer to plug into your DAC in your audio rig. Ideally but not necessarily hooked up via Ethernet (instead of WiFi). I use Ropieee but there are lots of folks here who like BlueSound or Lumin or Allo or Naim or whatever. I’m a cheap and cheerful bitsarebits person, though I prefer AES vs USB.
- get Tidal and/or Qobuz in addition to local files. I have both. But only because Tesla partnership with Tidal, otherwise I’d just have Qobuz. This is tribal
I really do think that if you invest in these three & 1/2 things your experience will be way better. I know you are asking about bullet 1 above, but it’s getting a whole set of stuff right that is the key. And this is all before system choice & synergy on the audio side.
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Sounds like there is general agreement here that NUC /ROCK is a good way to go. I’m in 100% agreement with that.
Lots of folks are happy and successful with other options and an “I’m going to make this work” attitude, and it works for them.
I want it to work all the time with no tinkering from me. That’s why I went the NUC/ROCK route and it has worked 100% of the time. Always available, no issues with software updates, it just works.
I got the NUC8I7BEH when it was originally certified by Roon and available, with 16GB Ram, Samsung 250 GB 970 m.2 NVMe drive for OS/Database, with a 1TB internal drive for my library. After a few years I needed more storage and upgraded the internal SSD from 1TB to 4TB. While the box was open the Ram was upgraded to 32GB. Didn’t need the additional memory, just seemed like a good idea while the box was open.
The NUC is in a climate controlled media closet with the entertainment system and Network components. Fan noise would not be an issue but after 2.5 years I’ve never heard the fan.
Best of luck with your choices.
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You can find used 8i7BEH and 10i7FHN NUCS in the UK on ebay if you’re inclined.
My used purchase of an 8i7 from here worked out really well - but of course YMMV
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Thanks - my current set up is that my music is stored on an external hard drive connected to my Imac. I’ve now got a NAS set up so I’m intending to move the music to the NAS and then connect the NUC to that. I’ve got a cupboard under the stairs with a hub so it probably end up in there, physically next to the NAS.
Thanks - everything ordered now!
That’s really helpful thank you. I’ve got a Naim streamer downstairs and will probably go from my Imac as an endpoint into my Schiit desktop DAC in my office. Noted regarding plugging into the modem/switch.
All ordered now. Thanks
I would get a large drive for the music attached to the NUC and back it up to the NAS if I were you. This is what I do as the NAS can be quite slow when it comes to importing and scanning your library.
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And potentially roon won’t notice any updates on the nas in real-time so a local drive IMHO is always better.
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Hi all, thanks for your support. I’m now the proud owner of a fully functioning Intel NUC running Roon. Wouldn’t have got there without you!
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Great news and hopefully gives you a good long run with no issues
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That’s great.
What setup did you decide on?
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