My current Roon server is an 8th gen Intel NUC i7 2.7 GHz with 16Gb of RAM running ROCK. My files are stored locally on a SanDisk 8TB Desk Drive SSD connected via USB-C. The server is connected via CAT-6 on a network that supposedly has gigabit throughput. My system has 99,745 tracks. Once my system crossed the 99k track threshold, I noticed substantial delays when importing, searching and when I select any album the details, particularly the text description takes a long time to load. I’m wondering what I can do to improve performance. Will adding more RAM do the trick or do I need to find a faster computer? If all I need is more RAM, how much should I get? If I need a different computer, what should I consider other than a Nucleus?
The NUC8i7 with 16 GB memory should handle a library of 100,000 tracks without issue. Therefore, there’s no reason to replace or increase memory.
If you use the original NUC case, I would give the fan assembly a thorough clean since dust build-up may result in CPU throttling.
IFixIt has a step-by-step guide for disassembling this model.
Should there be no improvement, open a Support request as Roon should be able to see why performance has dropped off.
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I have a i5-8500T with 32gb RAM and with Tidal, Qobuz and local files my library was ~420,000 tracks and gave an acceptable performance. This was running Roon server on DietPi. Only used 12gb to 14gb of RAM. With DSP e.g. PEQ with upsampling to DSD256 and it’s well within parameters. (In DietPi I have Turbo disabled)
With Rock and the same library it was a lesser experience.
So an i7 8th gen CPU with 16gb of RAM should be fine.
When was the last time you cleaned up the library and cleared the image cache in Roon?
To clean library go to Settings\Library in Roon there is a button under the Library Maintenance section “Clean Up Library”
To clear the image cache go to Settings\Setup and there is a button called “clear cache” under the Clear Image cache section.
May not solve the problem but worth a try?
I also second mjw’s suggestion to try cleaning the NUC. Verify the fan is still working, also. Depending on its age it may need new thermal paste on the CPU? There are youtube videos showing how to do this.
Is the cat6 direct connect to the router? or is there a switch or other device involved?
Check the ethernet port lights to see if you truly have gigabit speed, lights are typically one for connection status/speed (solid) and one for activity (flashing). There is no universally adopted standard that all OEMs follow. But, on my TP link switch green = 1000Mbps, yellow = 10/100Mbps, but colors can vary by manufacturer so check your manual.
Like this for my TPLink TL-SG116 (it also shows for other models that do not indicate speed):
You can also look at the back of the NUC to see speed. (google AI says the bellow):
On Intel NUC Ethernet ports, the Amber/Yellow light indicates a 1 Gbps (Gigabit) or higher connection, while the Green light indicates a 100 Mbps connection. A solid light signifies an active link, and a blinking light indicates active data transmission. No light usually means no network connection or a very low-speed link.
If you are not getting the speed you expect, try a higher quality ethernet cable. I have personally seen correctly rated cables be “bad” (wither bad connectors or bad wire used) and not get the speed they “should”. Making my own or buying a better cable solved the issue for me.
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2 things
- How many unidentified albums do you have
- When was the last time you rebooted the NUC or restarted the Server software
Everyone will tell you that you don’t need to restart ,try it or a week . Put the coffee on, restart the NUC come back with coffee …(I have to restart mine due to thunderstorms and I have zero issues)
Roon techies in the past have said that 8Gb of RAM should be plenty. 16 should be fine
My NUC is a 10i7 with 32 Gb for a 200 k track library which runs flawlessly
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Mine’s a i7-8650U with 16GB of Ram too, I’m not sure if it’s the same thing as yours. Has a 4TB external SSD handling around 88k tracks at about 2.3TB. Sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it isn’t, even though I haven’t reached your track count yet.
It did start to be very slow when I introduced a Matrix switch and it did take sometime to recover, plus rearranging the way I had the network plugged. I’m not so sure it was this last thing that did it or, as was suggested, cycling power a few times for everything to get the correct IPs or whatever this voodoo stuff does.
What I notice is that it doesn’t behave always the same, so I’m sure it’s not a hardware issue yet. I also have a suspicion that external drives are a bottleneck, even if they are SSDs. They are substantially slower than internal ones but this should only be a problem if Rock has a lot of tracks to still handle (ID, level analysis, etc).
Curious to follow this thread.
BTW, I have everything connected with CAT8 cables that sound better to me but behave the same in terms of speeds as my previous cat6s. That shouldn’t be the issue.
I have neve gone the hi spec cable route, mine are all “from the PC shop in a bag cables” , there is even one running 60m over the roof connecting router to lounge switch equally cheap and cheerful. The only special thing is protection against the African sun.
Unless you are running VERY high sampling rates the data rate of audio is trivial and well within the capabilities of an external USB drive. I have a 4tb internal SSD and an external 5TB HDD i never notice a difference,.
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Yes, in terms of connection stability etc, cable category shouldn’t make any difference. My audiophily-all-singuing-and-dancing switch has 2 dedicated audio signal out ports and they are 100mbp/s. That in contrast with the others 2.5Ghzs or SFP+. A shoe-string can do 100mbps, let alone a CAT6 or even a 5e.
This thread made me look into things and I’ve noticed my library audio analysis had no schedule to work itself out but on demand audio analysis was on fast. I guess this means it was making said analysis only when playing and with all the cores having priority over this task. I just set a schedule, turned the power off and on again and everything is playing along nicely now.
I still think it was snappier a year ago but everything loads and happens in less than a second, so it’s pretty good AFAIC…