I just bought my NUC10i7fnh, and days later (literally) Roon updated their NUC recommendation to NUC11. The reason I selected the NUC I bought was so that future changes to ROCK would work on my NUC.
For what time frame can I be confident that ROCK modifications will not obsolete my hardware?
Thanks - Glenn Young
Your NUC is in the recommended list. They just added the newer models
Considering their own hardware runs on gen8 there is no fear of it being unsupported for a long time yet if ever. I canāt see the demands for Roon getting heavier more so lighter with them looking at using the cloud more for stuff. ROCk still works on Gen7 hardware and I get it to run on a gen3 nuc as an endpoint only.
Started with the 1st version of ROCK running on a D34010WYKH NUC, a 4th Gen i3 from ā13 which had 8GB RAM & a 240GB SATA SSD. This wasnāt on the supported list, but ran ROCK fine. I lent it out and it is still being used.
I moved to a NUC5i3MYHE, a 5th Gen i3 from ā15 which also had 8GB and a 240GB SATA SSD, which was and is still on the supported list, 5 years later. This also ran ROCK just fine from ā17 though to ā22. I have this NUC as a backup and another as a Spare. But I have built 2 more, sold one and gave another to a mate.
My library is circa 97k tracks.
These older NUCs were development machines used in the office, running Linux with dual head monitors, building software to be deployed to servers and now AWS. As we moved to Docker build environments, they have been refreshed for later NUC models with more RAM and much bigger SDDs, so have become āavailableā. They make perfect ROCK servers for smaller (less than 100k track libraries). Given that ROCK runs as an embedded headless server running a stripped down Linux derived OS.
I tested the NUC5i3 with simultaneous multi-zone playback, with convolution DSP filters applied, and format conversion DSP, and there was no break in the playback stream.
I have now moved to a NUC7i7DNK (same CPU as a Nucleus+), but with 16GB and a fast NVMe PCI Gen3 SSD, as one came available for a sensible price,
So you on a NUC10 should be provided for, for the next 10-years, unless you expand your library into the 500,000 tracks level, of course.
Like others have said. For reference, there is a list of supported models and Roon committed to supporting them. It goes back to 5th gen. They just added new ones now.
- The models we support are:
NUC5i3xxx
NUC5i5xxx
NUC6i3SYx
NUC6i5SYx
NUC7i3BNx
NUC7i5BNx
NUC7i7BNx
NUC7i3DNx
NUC7i5DNx
NUC7i7DNx
NUC8i3BEx
NUC8i5BEx
NUC8i5BEx
NUC8i7BEx
NUC10i3FNx
NUC10i5FNx
NUC10i7FNx
NUC11TNHi3
NUC11TNHi5
NUC11TNHi7
NUC11PAHi3
NUC11PAHi5
NUC11PAHi7
NUC12WSHi3
NUC12WSHi5
NUC12WSHi7
No worries. Even the current Nucleus Rev B models use NUC7i3DNx (regular Nucleus) and NUC7i7DNx (Nucleus Plus) boards.
As other have said - 10i7 should be good for another 10 years. NUC5i7 is still one of the best platforms for ROCK.
If you look carefully youāll see the 5i7 isnāt supported. Neither is the 6i7. They ran too hot and there was never an official silent case for them. They work fine, but Iād seriously question the notion they were amongst the best for the reasons mentioned above. Even the 7i7 equivalent to the MkI Nucleus didnāt have a silent Akasa case assigned but there was a simple work around that preserved most of its performance while preventing overheating under load.
Akasa was super conservative about thermal dissipation capabilities of their cases.
True, if you were to run some video editing / rendering software that would load the CPU up 100% for many hours, at some point you probably could reach the limit of those cases. However, this is not how Roon ROCK works.
You can run DSD512 upsampling on NUC5i7RYH or NUC7i7BNH in Akasa Plato case for 24h and they will peak @ 35-37āC, which translates to just 13-15āC over ambient. Playing music with no DSD or at idle, they reach just 3āC over ambient.
Fun fact: when you run a Cinebench benchmark, the NUC5i7RYH and NUC7i7BNH can easily go up to 90āC (with CPU Tj max beeing 100 or 105āC) in the original Intel NUC cases with a fan. If your thermal paste is old, they can even reach 100āC and start throttling the CPU. On the very same benchmark NUC5i7RYH and NUC7i7BNH in Akasa plato case will not go past 60āC, even with maxed power settings in the BIOS.
I donāt agree fully with that (due to the fact the Nucleus+ needed additional management) but none of that changes the fact the the 5i7 and 6i7 arenāt supported as ROCK candidates. From memory a complaint of the 6i7 was it was noisy in the standard case.
Define āsupportedā?
NUC5i5RYH and NUC5i7RYH are the exact same boards, just higher clock speed on the later.
It all comes down to heat management. I can only guess Roon has based their āsupportā list also with heat management in mind. In the original Intel NUC case the NUC5i7RYH is pretty much usless - too much heat at full blast (TDP 28W), so it gets too noisy. But put it in the Akasa plato case and it is a different story.
PS. Another solution for the NUC5i7RYH is to transplant the internal radiator / fan block from the NUC7i7 - although identical in size, the 7i7 radiator is much more substantial design, all copper, which results in much greater cooling capablilites. Intel obviously has learned sth from 5th and 6th gen designs.
Just for fun, I have recently retrofited the 7i7 radiator / fan block into a NUC5i3 and the results are pretty amazing - the 5i3 maxes at 50āC under 100% load in Cinechench 15 test. Iām actually importing my 16TB library into the NUC5i3 right now just to see what happens and with all 4 cores active and 5h into the scan, the NUC case reads just 35āC, with the fan almost inaudible (probably running at ~30%).
To sum up my weekend NUC 5i3 project/experiment:
Roon has finished importing my 16TB library. That is 170.000 songs, over 12.000 albums (6000 of which in high resolution PCM and DSD). It took the NUC5i3 4h to import those 170k albums and around 25h to scan all of the tracks for loudness leveling etc (with all 4-cores active).
Since 5i3 CPU only consumes 7W of power at full load, the amount of heat it generates is minimal. With the 7i7 heatsink / fan block transplanted, the case never went past 35āC and the fan duty cycle was very low at around 30%. That means that even at full load it was very quiet.
Stuffed with 8GB of RAM and super fast Samsung SSD (I canāt stress highly enough how important this is) the NUC5i3 didnāt feel much different in responsivnes, search times, album art load times etc. to what Iām used to with my Roon Core running on a my desktop PC under Win 10, equipped with i7-10700 CPU (note: the desktop 10i7 CPU is faster than mobile 10i7 equivalent, used in the NUC).
It just confirms what I have been telling ppl for years - unless you are a heavy DSP user or your library is exceptionally large (canāt imagine having anything more than 200.000 tracks, as my 170k already takes 16TB) - the NUC5i3 with a fast SSD is still all that is needed for 99% of users.
Great test, thanks @Elberoth.
Do you know if thereās a similar upgrade path to improve heat dissipation on the NUC7i5BNx? Should I try replacing with the 7i7BN heatsink & fan combo, and do you know where I could source?
Iām seeing 20W idle for ROCK, and lots more when running hot- much of which I attribute to the screaming fan! (stock, now 5yrs in service, increasingly annoyingā¦)
Other options on my listā¦
Akasa Plato case?
Replace whole rig with Mac Mini 2?
Put it in a Plato case and itās done.
Thanks @Henry_McLeod
Iāll take the plunge on that then.
Any tricks with putting the NUC in its new shell?
Hardest part is getting it out of the old one. And the thermal paste that comes with the Akasa is a bit ordinary.
It depends what heatsing does the 7i5 use. If the aluminum one, like the 7i3, then yes.
Someone is selling 7i7DNK case with heatsink on ebay $25:
The heatsink on DNK and BNK is the same.
Where do you buy an Akasa plato case for generation 7 nucs?
As far as I know, they are out of stock for years.
There are one or two still around, or there are complete machines second hand on occasion.
I just ordered one here:
https://www.minipc.de/catalog/il/2172
There were 6 left in their stock, as of last night.