I recently upgraded my old NUC8i3, which I installed in an Akasa Plato case, to a NUC13ANHi7 in the default case. I’ve read lots about fan noise in the NUC13…and can confirm for you that the reports aren’t kidding. Even when idle (i.e. no music playing from any zones), the fan kicks on every 2-3 minutes and runs for 30-45 seconds. Coming from a silent, fanless setup, I’m wondering if that’s normal.
I’m enough of a novice to hesitate about altering the BIOS. I’ll try another Akasa case if I keep the ROCK in the listening room - probably a Maxwell - but I’m more likely to relocate it to a closet in another room. So assuming the noise problem is solved with relocation, is there any reason to tinker with fan settings in the BIOS? Is this kind of incessant fan activity detrimental at some point? Finally, if the fan really needs to run that often, would that make you think twice about passive cooling?
Interesting I too just migrated to a new Asus NUC13pro i3 model.
Previously I had the NUC8i7 in an Akasa case. The board shorted out (or something burned out, never figured it out) and I was forced to upgrade.
I am running DietPi OS to host Roon Server. The fan has only spun up ONCE on this machine, even when it was restoring Roon Backup, and processing new files.
The fan on that i3 very rarely spins up, and is super quiet. I have no desire to go with an Akasa case now; it’s that quiet.
Wondering what OS you’re running Roon Server on! Because DietPi is so lightweight, I recommend it.
Interesting. Not sure why the fans would spin with that OS, which is even more lightweight than even DietPi.
Unfortunately this is why I left Rock, because I couldn’t get insights into processes, core temps, utilization, etc.
DietPi runs Server just as well but allows me to SSH in and view everything that’s going on within the PC.
I left the fan settings as-is on my NUC13i3 and don’t have any reason to futz with them. I doubt the i7 is much hotter.
Personally I’d try DietPi + Roon Server. It’s a little fiddly, but has been rock solid! And so much more configurability. (There’s an add in you can install called DietPi Dashboard to observe processes and device health).
I’m running a NUC13i5, I changed the BIOS “Fan Control Mode” to Quiet, and never hear it - EXCEPT when adding new albums, but it quickly ramps back down again.
I’d try futzing with the BIOS before futzing with a new case - I put my previous NUC7i5 in an Akasa case, and now feel the effort (and cost) probably wasn’t worth it.
I have my eye on one of these. I run Dietpi too and moved for same reasons as yourself. Fed up with not knowing why my machine was slowing. Moved to Dietpi and could see its RoonAppliance service getting stuck at 100%cpu. Others had same thing on other platforms. Checking logs at same time this behaviour happened allowed me to correlate it back to Roons big automatic metadata updates it performs in the background. Although it’s not so background anymore as it also stopped Roon being useful and disconnected remotes. Roon are investigating. If if stayed on Rock would not have seen what cpu was doing. Also I can run other backup services that still operate fine when Roon has one of its fits.
@mikeb , it worked a treat. I switched to the “quiet” mode and haven’t heard the fan at all since, except when adding albums as you suggested. Thanks for that. I even got brave and changed the power LED’s color and brightness, which made having the NUC in plain sight far less annoying during evening listening.
I’m so grateful for this site. Y’all are very kind.