hello guys
sorry for the next question i am sure it has been asked multiple times but i could not find a definitive yes or no.
currently i am using an old laptop as my roon server. this is connected via USB to my HEGEL h90. controlled by an ipda. so far working fabulous.
i am starting to see some hickups and i am suspecting the laptop is soon to be no longer with us anymore.
looking for alternatives. before i go and buy an expensive nuc, can a PI replace a nuc\laptop? can i install the core on the pi and connect it to my hegel?
Your terms are a bit mixed up
A NUC is a small PC that has an Intel chip in much like your laptop, that is the thing that would be a new core.
A Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer that can be used as an end point only.
You can run Windows or Roon Rock (free) on the NUC as your core as many people do. And yes you can connect the Hegel to the nuc.
On your laptop, make sure all other (windows) background tasks are disabled, such as checking for software updates, search indexing, backups, and so on.
A Raspberry pi cannot run Roon core software, but a cheap NUC can. A second hand 7i3/7i5 is beefy enough for modest libraries, and can be found relatively cheaply. The BEH version has room for an internal hard drive, BEK does not. I’d recommend Rock for its “appliance-type user experience”!
If you want to do this on a budget and can get hold of one, a Pentium Silver based NUC running a J5005 processor will be the performance match of a supported CPU like a 5th generation i3 NUC while being a decent chunk cheaper than a modern i3. This can be done on a budget.
The only way is to try it and see. If you want to preserve the OS then swap the SSD and try to install ROCK on that. I have a gen 4 i5 ThinkCentre but I have never put ROCK on it because I have a NUC.
