I know the fanless approach! You have a nice setup!
I am running something similar with a SonicTransporter fed by a LPS. So no noise, nothing, totally silent.
However, the issue that’s been brought up is that any computer if not purpose-built has switches on the motherboard that are electronically noisy and the noise might enter your system.
I might get back to you as at one point I need to replace my SonicTransporter and one option would be a NUC in a fanless case.
I installed the Euphony OS (https://euphony-audio.com/), by mistake! I wasn’t able to return to its original SonicTransporter OS. Euphony OS is great, but a bit taxing for the ,modified‘ SonicTransporter .
At one point, I‘ll do a clean install of Euphony on a NUC.
The Roon Core needs to run on a general purpose platform. I would never expect the Core system to be “quiet” electronically. That’s why I use a Roon Endpoint over Ethernet. The Endpoint I use (ultraRendu) is a low noise purpose-built unit that has only the necessary hardware required to perform as an endpoint.
I run Roon Core on a fanless system > Ethernet > Raspberry Pi 4B > USB out.
My endpoint might not be as sophisticated as yours! I do think about getting a better endpoint. The Ultrarendu is one option I am thinking about!
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
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Hi, Paul. Missed this when you posted it.
Just because they have switching voltage regulators onboard, or for that matter use a switching power supply, doesn’t mean they are “noisy” (electrically). The only way you can really tell is by measuring the noise actually coming out of them. And even if you find some that way, it’s not clear that it makes much difference anywhere, because computers are operating in the digital domain, and the noise is in the analog domain.
There is a certain branch of audiophilia that holds that any noise anywhere is bad for the SQ. I don’t happen to be a member of that church, because where do you stop? What about noise coming from your neighbor, or ham radio operators locally? Etc. And I read this and this: Nothing to suggest more noise or distortion (with a regular desktop i7, no less). So I stopped worrying about it. I guess I’m an agnostic on this point: I won’t say it never makes a difference, but I’ve seen no evidence to show that it does.
So, how has it worked out in your setup? Any problems or bad habits? I just moved from my Nucleus to an older Mini. It is more robust than my Nucleus, and I am looking to move the SSD into it. I assume it is isolated from the built in hdd.
This post really surprised me. I have the same NUC, same akasa case, even the same RAM that you do; but mine would pop overtemp warnings after a few seconds while ROCK was reading the new database. Putting a small USB fan to blow on the Akasa case solved the issue entirely.
I wonder if I set something wrong in the BIOS or a mistake was made during assembly?
I also have the identical NUC and case running a Debian 10 core, I’ve never had any overheat issues. There are a few possibilities:
is the overheat CPU or is it the M2 drive that overheats when the DB is read? If the case has a weakness it’s a lack of M2 heat dissipation, and different brands might make a difference (I’ve got a Samsung evo).
If it’s a build issue it’s possible that the thermal contact between the case and CPU isn’t optimal, the bit with the grey goo. You can clean that off and start again but it’s messy to clean up.
ambient temperature can also make a difference I’m in the UK which is on the cooler side.
It’s unlikely to be the BIOS, I hope this helps some.
Personally, I run Roon Server and HQPlayer on an Ubuntu machine with tons of power for HQPlayer upsampling and water cooling. I never hear the fans or worry about temps. HQPlayer runs very well in Ubuntu, and so does Roon Server. I see no reason to get an M1 mini to do something a very simple Ubuntu install can do, and do better.
I wondered about the M.2 and bought an elaborate heat sink for it but it arrived after Roon had read the database, so I don’t know if that helped at all. I had thought the fan blowing on the case would not fix the issue if the contact patch was bad or the M.2 was the problem, but I have since learned that even a tiny bit of air flow can work miracles with cooling.
Anyway, I think I will stress the unit again to see if the issue remains.
The only option I changed in the BIOS was to select the ‘Fanless’ option from the ‘Fan Control Mode’ drop-down list. I’m not sure if this made any difference but would assume it prevents any errors at boot when the fan is disconnected.
Other than that, my Roon DB SSD (500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus) has the sticker removed and a £3 Akasa heatsink applied. Bog-standard Arctic MX4 thermal paste sparingly used onto the cleaned-up CPU.
After installing ROCK it is a zero maintenance machine. No bloat, no windows updates, no Mac Spotlight Indexing etc.
I exclusively use a well-specced MacBook Pro for work and much prefer MacOS for my workflow. When it comes to Hi-Fi, I just want a machine to get out of the way and serve music, not waste resources updating apps I never use and applying security patches to an OS I am using only a tiny part of.
I’m not sure whether this helps but. … initially I built a Nuc with a passive cooled Akasa case. I found it sometimes didn’t accept Roon updates and took time to get them working. In the end I bought a second hand Rev A Nucleus and have found it to be flawless and not that much more expensive than a Nuc. If I was doing it all again I would go straight for a second hand Nucleus off Ebay.
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