I read from the various threads on the Nucleus and the posts from @danny that the Nucleus device / hardware runs a customised version of ROCK to take in to account that the “Roon” NUC uses is a fan-less design (and thus has different thermal management settings among other things).
I am planning to build a fan-less i7 NUC (based on the Dawsons Canyon edition using the Akasa Plato X7D fanless case) and was wondering if Roon were planning on releasing a version of ROCK software optimised for fanless NUC designs (similar to what they have done for their Nucleus hardware)?
If you go into the BIOS settings for an Intel NUC, you should find a setting for fanless enclosures. At least it is present on my 7th generation NUC, and I’ve chosen this setting for my ROCK build in a fanless housing…
Also, the ROCK software in the Nucleus is optimised for their fanless design. Are Roon planning to make a version of ROCK available for fanless self build NUCs - there must be benefits to the optimised software they are using for their own hardware in terms of thermal management / SQ.
Hopefully @danny can clarify but if the thermal management is done by thermal paste/pads/chassis (and no fan or active electronics), there can be no interaction with software for cooling?
I’m a bit slow and probably missing something very obvious
I’d guess this setting stops the NUC from trying to control the fan and offering these controls to the OS.
I don’t think Roon will ever offer a ‘fanless’ edition of ROCK. Both Nuclei were very carefully designed and tested around their thermal needs and contraints – this would be impossible to do for the various NUCs and casings in the wild. This is exactly what defines the difference between a ready-to-rock appliance and a DIY solution.
You’ll be fine running ROCK with Geoff’s settings though.
Thanks for the reply Rene. In terms of thermal needs / constraints I’m sure that the Nuclei optimised version of ROCK is just dynamically controlling the processor taking in to account there is no fan installed on the CPU to dissipate heat. It will still be using the same control mechanisms (sensors) built on to the NUC motherboard to take measurements from. Maybe I’m over simplifying it but I don’t think it would be too hard to incorporate on to a “fanless” version of the software. I know some of the other settings would be just relevant to the Nuclei as Brian Luczkiewicz (Roon Labs: CTO) previously wrote (as cell as Crestron/C4 support - which I personally am not interested in):
“Some of the stuff that is different–the Nucleus Roon OS build has some thermal management stuff to account for it being fanless. It removes some audio devices in Settings->Audio so that ports not exposed on the hardware (like the analog outputs on the NUC inside) aren’t listed. It also identifies itself as a Nucleus, shows Nucleus branding on the configuration screens, etc.”
I’m guessing also that the Nuclei don’t have the Intel M.2 2030 wireless / Bluetooth cards installed on to the NUC motherboards as there are no antennae on those boxes (presumable the RFI from wireless would degrade SQ) - so something else to consider when building your own NUC based ROCK system?
All this setting does is to tell the motherboard to stop powering the fan ports.
Untrue.
RoonOS, which ROCK and Nucleus are both built on, has no thermal management.
ROCK relies on the BIOS and CPU fan. Nucleus’s BIOS is configured to not power any fans using the setting @Geoff_Coupe mentioned above, and then there are custom modifications for the Nucleus to do thermal management. ROCK is not Nucleus, even though they are very similar.
There are both physical and software mechanisms. Some of the software mechanisms are active, but many are passive (for example, turning off various heat generating components).
The temperature sensor is actually inside the CPU, and is very very fast and lightweight to access. We do not do any active thermal management for the RAM or SSD on the Nucleus/+, because we found it unnecessary with the components we use.
Correct, no M.2 wireless, no antennae. Many onboard components we don’t use are disabled and unpowered.
It’s just software, it’s never “hard”. ROCK is meant for devices that can cool themselves, Nucleus is not. Options related to ROCK and Nucleus:
use Nucleus/+
use NUC+ROCK with our recommended hardware configuration (with fan)
use ROCK with your own hardware configuration and rely on physical passive cooling
build your own custom Linux based OS with whatever software power management you desire
Thanks for the explanations Danny. All makes perfect sense. Would be nice to have the same options to turn off the components not in use (not required) on a self build fanless ROCK NUC that mimics the Nucleus setup as much as possible (after all, it’s just the passive case / heat-sink that’s different / bespoke - not including the various generations of current / supported and future / to be supported motherboards of course) and the BIOS can take care of the thermal management setting together with your manufacturer - for your chosen motherboard - appropriate passive heat-sink / case) but as @Rene mentioned earlier it. doesn’t appear to be in the Roon pipeline.
Not easily, sorry. It’s a long story, involving HDMI handshakes through various pieces of equipment old and new that will screw up HDMI, meaning that I have to connect the NUC to a dumb monitor to reset the HDMI handshake. That means moving the NUC to another room. Having done this once today, I really don’t feel up to going through the whole palaver again just to take a photo of the BIOS settings. I’d much rather listen to music. Once again, sorry.
OK. Maybe someone else will be able to show a screenshot of this BIOS setting? The point is that if this is what I think, I doubt the effectiveness of this BIOS settings on the power consumption of a NUC .
What is the sense in this setting if the fan still not connected, and accordingly does not consume energy? Just to disable the BIOS warning? To reduce the energy consumption of the NUC I made these settings:
Processing speed is not less 2.4x during playback with sample rate conversion option DSD256 and native DSD processing. But with sample rate conversion option DSD512 (and native DSD processing) speed only about 1.0x and normal playback is not possible. But my DAC works only with DSD256 maximum .
I know you say your DAC only works with DSD256 but how were you able to see a processing rate of 1.0x with DSD512? Did you try to enable Turbo Boost in the BIOS and did it make any difference?
I ask because I noticed the same processing rate of ~1.1x with native DSD512 with my two NUC7i7DN’s… I have Turbo Boost enabled (as per BIOS default).
