Read the thread about 1.3 goodies…
RCK is just a specialised OS that runs only one app; a RoonServer Core. It’s like a container. The Core that runs on an RCK box is an ordinary RoonServer Core with all the functionality of any other Core. So, yes, it will upsample to DSD.
I’m exactly one of those customers, who wants no-fuss and would rather not customise. Buying new hardware to me is a fuss. Just wondering, why can’t I just repurpose an old laptop (or even partition a current harddisk)? I want to do this not because my hardware is better, or because I want to customise anything- it’s just cheaper.
I understand for official support reasons there is a need to limit, but any reason why it wouldn’t work if I simply decide that I have an old laptop that I only want to use RCK for, and only in the way it’s intended?
Drivers, stability, optimisation… For RKC to be as fast and stable as possible, it likely has a minimal footprint and driver set. For testing and support this requires a fixed hardware platform.
If you want to (re)enable any old hardware, just slap Linux on it and be done with it. Pick your favourite distro, do not install a graphical desktop and install roonserver for Linux. Bliss.
@jason_Teo It looks like you want a real mix of things e.g. Not customise vs partitioning old equipment vs no fuss.
If you just want cheap then use whatever hardware you have and see whether it will run Roon or Roonserver. Win/OSX/Linux are all options for you.
If you wanted “no fuss” then buy a ready made Roonserver device. But that is not zero cost.
RCK will be for a specific purpose on a small range of specified hardware platforms (for the reasons @RBM mentions).
Sorry to say that you probably can’t have cake and eat it here. But you have lots of low-fuss options.
In the end, are we still limited to small SSDs? Not a big deal, assuming I can just find a USB box for my larger SSD and use it externally. (Are those things affordable? I haven’t researched yet.) Then I’ll just buy a new one and plug it in. But it would be simpler for me to use my existing SSD (512? Something like that) in my existing NUC.
Thanks …
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Must say Roon Core Kit sounds like the perfect solution. 
Hate it when you cannot listen to Music because your Windows machine is out due to windows update or simular.
One open question for me is what is the plan for shuting down a Roon Core Kit machine?
It would be a bit of a pain if you need to SSH to the machine or is the plan to include a “shut-down” button in the IOS/Android app?
I’m not quite sure what your definitions of small and large are, but if large is a 2.5" then the external USB caddies are cheap as chips and work great. I have a couple that I pop SSD’s in sometimes, and not had an issue, other than they seem pretty cheap (which they were) and plasticy.
Steve,
Looks like I got in too much of a hurry (as I often do) and didn’t make my meaning clear. When I wrote “small” I was referring to the specification, stated by @danny early on, that the Roon OS would only support low-capacity SSDs, 64 and 128GB. Later in this thread he suggested they were working on maybe supporting larger ones.
Still, even if they do, it probably would make sense for me to move my NUC’s internal SSD outboard and use it solely for content, since as you say “Caddies” (I didn’t know the word for 'em) are cheap.
Thanks!
Is the intention for RCK to support the new range of NUC’s announced at CES?
I appreciate details of them are going to be difficult to get hold of so its really a statement of principal more than a definitive answer
Thanks, Phil
Nb RCK is exactly what I need and I think there’s a good market for it.
once we know more about them, we will decide. but if they are similar to other NUCs, then yes.
The i5/i7 were announced for the end of Q1, I believe – ample time to decide.
Rene - that will give me just about enough time to get the Raspberry Pi endpoint that arrived today up and running!
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Super excited about this. My Win10 NUC is waiting to be wiped. Question…i currently run my USB dac straight out of the NUC. Will this work ok still?
Yes. See the above posts in this thread.
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I had a rough date once … but that’s another story.
The DAR article mentioned 1.3 was expected around the end of January but no one really knows. The more those pesky alpha testers bash things around the longer it can take. They really are a menace.
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How big a library could roon core kit handle while providing snappy performance and assuming using the best hardware supported (i.e., 6i5 & max RAM)? I’ve got 110,000 tracks. Thanks.
Hi Peter,
I understand a max spec i5 (RAM is less significant) will handle current Roon loads for very large libraries including 110,000 tracks and more. It may be that @evand can assist in this regard (he’s got a big 'un 
).
But current Roon loads are not future Roon loads. If you have the half dozen or so zones of a normal house (as distinct from the Scottish castles I understand @danny likes to roam, transferring zones as he goes) you could do some parametric EQ in each Zone simultaneously (for example) and still not overly tax a full spec i5.
When you start upsampling and convolving Room EQ, however, things start to change. If you were upsampling to say DSD 128 and convolving to one Zone only and using some EQ in others, then I think you might find an i7 would make a difference and as soon as you start upsampling and convolving to multiple Zones (especially multichannel convolving) then I think you would definitely need the extra grunt of an i7. In a little while we will all be able to check out how these sorts of workloads affect our hardware.
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Hi! any ideas on when you plan to release THE ROON KIT? Running Roon on a Synology DS916+ with 8GB ram and still have issues playing hi-res material: dropouts! discussed this in this forum and was told that considering the size of the library THE ROON KIT running on a NUC may solve all the issues. So looking forward to a release date!
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I’ve not read your other thread, but tbh I would suggest you look into your networking infrastructure. While the DS916+ is not a particular power monster, I fail to see that hi-res dropouts are caused by it’s CPU.
My Roon Server is running on a way less powered system, and I’m playing high-res content fine.
So again my tip: look into your network infrastructure before reaching out to other hardware.