I have a friend with a very large library of LPs (yes I appreciate the differece) and CDs whom I’m trying to persuade to shift to ROON.
Problem is that he is a Luddite technophobe who has not ventured outside his (PC, not MAC) notebook or new large new TV and is even more ignorant about PCs and associated gear than me. So it seems the only way to persuade him is to have a suitable Notebook he can use as before but can also run ROON.
I’ve done some initial searches here and elsewhere but have not come up with an answer that hopefully someone can give me here. What specs would be required for a notebook to run ROON with music files an external 5TB HDD connected by USB3?
Would Windows 7 on a 250GB SSD C drive be OK?
Would an i3 or i7 processor be OK?
How much RAM?
Or is this whole concept of a Notebook too hard and I should persuade him to go for a complely different setup? If so suggestions?
If I know the answers to this I can search for a suitable used notebook or system to set up for him. He is a bit of a scrooge so suggestions for a reasonably priced bridge to feed a DAC would be appreciated. It will have to operate by wireless link as he is unwilling to install cabling.
TIA
John
An always on device would seem to be the most sensible route with a notebook or tablet for control. Nucleus was pretty much made for people like him. But I presume he has a lot of ripping to do. If he can afford it I’d just get them sent away or get someone in to spend time doing it. That will present the bigger problem than actually running Roon.
Notebook would work. An i5 processor 8mb RAM with 250 gb SSD works OK for me - 110,000 tracks (Classical mostly). The only issue is that he really should be using Windows 10 not 7 (which you would get with a new notebook anyway). I use this solely for Roon. The music is stored on an attached HDD. The computer is connected directly to the modem. I have it “locked” so other people cannot access with screen turned off as I use my iPad to control Roon. I load any new music over the network to the attached HDD - so I do not need to access the Roon dedicated computer for that purpose. The only issue is that every couple of months, you will need to make sure that any Windows software updates are implemented - which usually takes about 30 minutes or so.
Thanks for that Paul.
Why Windows 10? I’m very happy with W7 myself and had to help a friend recently get rid of W10 and revert to the W7 she was used to. My friend is in a similar situation and I would be concerned he should stick with the W7 he is used to and not be challenged by a new system.
Encouraged by your response I’ll examine his present notebook and see if it might be usable. If the RAM can be improved and it has a USB 3 port it could workl if his C drive was changed to an SSD. He told me he was considering getting an iPad anyway.
As for getting his library into an HDD, I can help with that.
Thanks asgain
John