Recommendations?

I am looking to setting up a Mac mini as my core. Currently, I am using my Macbook wirelessly and consequently, I get dropouts. Just wondered what I should look for in an inexpensive solution. Thanks!

I have had very good luck with the sonicTransporter i5 from Small Green Computer. You can add storage space for you music if you desire.

If you don’t already have this Mac Mini I’d suggest to go for an Intel NUC + ROCK. Good value in my opinion.

2 Likes

I also got to thinking: I have a Lenovo Thinkcentre, running Windows 7 with Intel Core I5, 8gig RAM with a 500gig HD just stting idle. I am using a Bluesound Vault 2i got storage so space isn’t an option. I wonder if this would work?
Also, just checked and Crucial has a 250gig SSD upgrade for this computer fo $50 so this would certainly make for a cheaper option.

1 Like

That may work. It depends which Core i5 generation processor sits inside the Lenovo - if it’s too old it may not be up to the task.

Personally, I’ve no other experience than running Roon from a MacBook and later with ROCK on a NUC. But others here surely can help out on the matter.

Intel Core I5 3550 CPU @ 3.30 GHz

It would seem that since Roon lists a Core I3 as a minimum requirement that an I5 should certainly be adequate.

But it also depends on the CPU generation. I’m not really familiar with this, so I cannot give a definite answer here.

According to this: https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_What_are_the_minimum_requirements%3F

it should work.

Since you already have the hardware I’d say give it a try. If you’re not happy with the result you could still invest in a NUC later. The only thing I’m not sure about is if you could reuse the upgrade SSD you’ve mentioned.

Well, so far it is working great. After 5 hours of flawless playback (no dropouts) I would have to say this was the way to go. I set the Lenovo Tower as the Core, connected directly to the router, set the computer to boot up with no login needed, and put a Roon.exe shortcut in the startup folder. Everything works as it should. The bootup is very slow, but I think I can fix that by installing an SSD as the boot disk. As the smallest one I can get is 250 gig it would probably make sense to put the Core on it as well.

It’s a Roon recommendation to have the core - especially its database - on an SSD - so, yes, it would make sense. :slight_smile:

The majority of my library is on a Bluesound Vault 2i; as it is a network drive, also ethernet connected, the Core seems to have no problems playing from it.

By “database” I didn’t mean the actual audio files but the data the core holds and manages. Metadata and all such.

1 Like