ROCK's future

Intel is no longer offering NUC directly. Now that they have stepped aside, all of China and Taiwan is offering NUC form factor systems. Roon can no longer depend on specific hardware to be in the box as it was building a tailored Linux version having Roon Core pre-installed an a simple Web UI.

Here, I’m running ROCK on a System76 Meerkat. System76 caters to engineers and scientists so systems are curated carefully and what’s in them is documented. And there are good drivers for everything in the box.

I’ve had no trouble as a result of paying System76 for a validated and verified design. Look at the specifications page on the website.

Will Rock move to a VM environment and containers like Docker? For which distributions? Debian Server or Ubuntu Server seem to be the DIY choice for those not rolling their own Arch environments. Distribution hell and shared library hell I can live without.

The FreeBSD license lets you put proprietary wine in Open Source skins. FreeBSD is what the router builders do. pfSense is an example in the router space. FreeBSD containers and virtual environments are behind those in the Linux universe.

It looks like current thinking is to offer a Nucleus value edition and a Nucleus audiophile edition at an audiophile price.

Nucleus One at $500 is damn attractive. You can pick your poison. DIY can’t beat Nucleus One unless you have a good parts box. And the case is spouse approved pretty.

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I also wondered about this.

When I look at Roon’s latest supported NUC, I see it’s only available from Amazon merchants with awful ratings.

While the Nucleus One seems like a good ready to go unit for many, it’s questionable whether or not it can handle my use case (multichannel DSD with some DSP). The only other option from Roon is the Titan at 8X the price!!

So if one wants to use ROCK, we’re left on our own with unsupported hardware.

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Sure they can. I’m guessing, that they will probably choose and bless the Asus Nuc line since that is who Intel specifically gave it to. Asus NUCs use Intel motherboards. The only holdup, imho, is Roon releasing a new ROCK supported list. I’m assuming they are doing testing.

Not according to Roon devs. You can search and find official responses on this matter.

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‘MOCK’ power! :smiling_imp: Haha!

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It’s been a LONG time since Roon (Danny?) mentioned support coming for new hardware. The very long delay doesn’t inspire confidence that we’ll see any new supported hardware any time soon.

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Good for the computer tech savvy, not so much for computer challenged folks like me. :blush:

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Completely understand. However, should one ‘wish’ to have a little ‘tinker’ and learn something new, have a look at some threads, it can be rewarding. And, it really isn’t much different to setting up an Intel Nuc. I ran my Roon server on a Dell Optiplex before finally settling on an Intel Nuc (for size/price). Plus, there’s loads of us here to help!

I get the appeal with Roons own equipment. Up and running in seconds. :slightly_smiling_face:

But, with everything…. Pro’s & Cons!

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Anyone can already run Roon Server on any Linux they like. It’s IMHO good that Roon offers one option, ROCK, on very specific hardware that they can test, for the type of customers who value this. (But yeah the supported compatibility list should be updated).

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If they do that now, isn’t that going to cut into Nuc One sales?

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Isn’t that the use case for the Nucleus range , buy a box >add albums >listen forget any fiddling and twiddling !!

Them as can do , them as can’t don’t.(Lancashire saying) :rofl:

If someone is able to put together a NUC they will it will be cheaper for them , if not the Nucleus One is a good alternative. There’s room for both. You can always load Roon Server on a Windows pc

A base M4 Mac Mini is pretty much unbeatable at the current price in my opinion :slight_smile:

External storage for the music files, roon server and just let the thing run.
Also way overkill for most office/family type of usecases.

I play multichannel pcm / dsd files on mine with PEQ and other DSP stuff and it doesn’t even break a sweat while doing other stuff simultaneously.

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The value edition as you describe is no less audiophile.
I ran ROCK for a time, it required regular restarting otherwise Roon became unresponsive. I use dietpi on the same NUC that coped well with Roon server, Plex server and LMS running simultaneously. These days I don’t use Roon.
If I were doing it again I’d get a generic SBC and install dietpi and not use ROCK.

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Shame that isn’t the case for everyone, seems to be as many issues with Nucleus users as others. It’s not immune to Roons idiosyncratic nature.

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100% agree.
I have recently setup a number of super cheap Intel N100 pcs running Linux for a customer that needed them for a virtical market application and at under £200, they booted Linux in seconds and worked really well with pretty good performance as well.

I imagine the AMD Ryzen models would be great for DietPi and Roon and still around £500 or less.

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I fell in love with ROCK when I first got Roon but ended up moving over to a cheap N100 based mini PC running Debian so I could run Plex on the same box.

It made me realise that ROCK occupies a pretty narrow niche- tech-savvy enough to set it up but not tech-savvy enough to set up a simple Linux server. I really won’t be surprised if it falls by the wayside now that there’s an affordable Nucleus option.

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To some extent I agree with regard to ROCK at the lower performance range. The Nucleus One pricing has made a new ROCK build much less attractive at that performance level.

However, there are still plenty of motivations for using ROCK on a high performance NUC to get greater Roon Server performance (DSP, Search and analysis).

It is still posslble to build a NUC/ROCK system that compares favourably with the Nucleus Titan for about 1/4 to 1/3 the price.

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Asus bought the NUC rights, as Intel and the outgoing CEO decided it was not for them.

I hope Asus keeps it up, what I like about ROCK is the minimal build just focused on the important stuff.

It seems that Asus is going to keep it up, the idea has been copied, and there are plenty of other systems out there, yet when you take it apart, the build quality is really bad.

I have never taken apart a Nucleus, I am sure they are well built, yet the price point on the larger models is not for me, I can build things, and if I need to run Ubuntu on a VM or a dedicated box, I can do that.

can strip down the OS to do just want I need it to do, and the community has so many thoughts and opinions.

I will say when I first got the Roon Bug I was running it on a Windows PC, that lasted about a week.

My Roon Server journey has been long, now a ROCK i5 11th gen NUC, with decent networking, and SSD for my library, it works, and no guest has ever asked how the sausage is made.

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I’m still running a 7th gen i3 NUC as my ROCK. There are likely 7th gen machines out in the world to be had easily and cheaply. I had much worse luck with the i7 I tried. The main problem the NUCs hit was cooling. The little fans die and are fiddly to replace. When the 2nd fan died, I gave up on it and got a different machine, but my ROCK is still going strong.

I ran Ropeeei Linux endpoints for a couple of years, but I upgraded those. The WiiM Minis are a lot easier to run. They’re still not Roon Ready though, which is a shame. Sound surprisingly good for the price.

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BUT ROCK is simple. Mine has run for 3 yrs untouched literally.

Take my experience , I got my local PC supplier to put all the bits into a NUC , I didn’t need to know what , there are several You Tube videos that list the Bits you need.

I took home a working NUC. I followed the instructions to download and burn a USB stick (Etcher etc) and had a working NUC/ROCK in 30 mins , what’s niche about that. It’s close to plug and play . Anyone who has decided computer audio is the route can do it simply.

The disclaimer is that I knew what to do but due to neck issues the dexterity required evades me these days (I struggle to button a shirt !!) so I simply got some one to do it . They were happy to if nothing else but to prove the components I had bought were working, didn’t even charge me.

All you really need is to plug in a monitor and keyboard for the set up , that’s not Rocket Science

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Perhaps it’s because I’m an inveterate tinkerer (pcs, Linux, raspi etc) but I think there’s an awful lot of folk that don’t realise just how easy MOCK is to deploy on a dedicated machine.
Whilst Roon have only ever supported the NUC machines, the range of machines you can successfully use for ROCK/MOCK is vast. It is, at it’s very essence, simply a cut down Linux distribution with Roon Server running and a basic web ui. Given how ubiquitous Linux has become you’re probably more likely to find a pc that can’t run MOCK than can.
I’ve run it on a Mac Mini 2012, a j4126 celeron mini pc, an N5105 NUCBOX, a Lenovo m93 tiny (i5 6th gen) and now my current server is a Chinese industrial mini pc N100 passively cooled (works a treat).
I understand that for some, an unsupported deployment might be a concern but, genuinely, ROCK is, at this stage, really very stable.


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