Running ROCK on a regular PC (instead of NUC)

[Fin]

Hi All

Am I correct to assume that the main advantages of a NUC for Roon core is the price & low noise(fanless)?
My thinking is that I can put a regular pc in the attic and run Roon core on that. I can get a regular pc for a good price but NUCs are a little more money in my country.

So is this a good alternative?

Cheers
Fin

[xxx (Banned - toxicity)]

@Fin

run Roon core on that

Do you mean ROCK or Roon Core? Two different things.

[mdconnelly (Michael)]

There are lots of good reasons to run ROCK - minimal management required being the biggest. But, Roon will only support ROCK on approved NUCs. You may be able to get ROCK running on a regular PC (aka MOCK), but you lose Roon support and may run into some headaches. Of course, you can certainly accomplish what you want to do by running RoonServer on your regular PC running Windows or Linux. Just make sure your regular PC is powerful enough to do so.

[Fin]

Sorry, ROCK I assume (ROCK as on OS) as opposed to Roon Core on a Win/Mac based system?

[Fin]

Ok, so my options are Roon Core running on a pc, or,
ROCK running on a NUC?

Assume there is little difference between the above two options aside from potential differentials in price, size and noise?

[ged_hickman1]

Some people run ROCK on PCs

MOCK - Tell us what strange gear you've installed ROCK on!

This discussion needs to be prefaced by the words from the Roon KB: Will ROCK run on my existing hardware? How about this other hardware? We have only tested with the above mentioned NUCs. It may work with other machines, but the drivers needed may not exist there. Try it out and let us know. We can not comment on whether any different hardware will work, as we have not tested it. We will not make any guesses, educated as they might be. If you do manage to get it to run, that’s great, but we…

There are many models that users have got working. It’s not supported by Roon so if it goes wrong you are limited to fellow user support.

[xxx (Banned - toxicity)]

@Fin

Assume there is little difference

No SQ difference.

Some people think running Roon on Windows is a burdensome chore.

I’ve never found that to be the case.

[Fin]

Great, if there is a perception that there is an SQ difference, then I wouldn’t be inclined to agree. In which case, it appears that running Core on a standard Windows based PC is great option.

[Jim_F (- This forum no longer works for me.)]

I would build a NUC or buy a Nucleus (what I did).

[Fin]

Why Jim? Don’t leave me hanging!

[Jim_F (- This forum no longer works for me.)]

I had nothing but problems running on a Dell XPS 15 i7 with 32GB RAM. It was my general purpose laptop doing other things, so that was part of the problem. Also used WIFI for a while. Nucleus has been FLAWLESS for 8 months.

[Fin]

ok thanks Jim. My intention would be to buy a second hand pc and dedicate it to running Core.

[Jim_F (- This forum no longer works for me.)]

You can build a NUC for not much $$.

[Sheldon_Stokes]

I just built one a month or two ago.

NUC8i5. $400
Memory. $30
M.2 SSD. $50
2TB ssd $230.

I was up and running in about a half hour including time to sip tea and look over what I was doing. I copied my music over in about 6 hours. And it has been flawless.

Before that I was doing the demo on a ten year old Mac mini which was also flawless for the 2-3 weeks I was demoing before committing and buying a NUC.

The huge plus for me with the NUC is I don’t have yet another machine to feed and water. I already have too many boxes to admin in my life.

[Fin]

What’s the administrative burden with a standard pc that the NUC doesn’t have? I would’ve thought a win PC is fit and forget

[Jim_F (- This forum no longer works for me.)]

Nothing is fit and forget with Windows.

[Fin]

I see where you are coming from however I have a CCTV software running on Win PC for last two years, not a second of downtime with no intervention/admin required.

[Jim_F (- This forum no longer works for me.)]

Then go for it.

[Themis (Dimi)]

In my opinion, if you have a regular PC with i3 or i5 processor and a 128GB (or 256GB) SSD on it, you can as well run Roon Core on it. It is a valid alternative.
If you plan to put it in the attic, you will need Ethernet (or Ethernet-over-mains adapters) to connect it to the rest of your streaming device(s).

[ged_hickman1]

You need to be careful of windows updates.
The forum is full of two errors caused by this.

1. Overwrites the firewall rules so people lose random functionality.
2. Overwrites graphics drivers.

If you can keep on top if that then there is no problem.