Hi. I have a NUC, Roon rock.
I wish to remove external music storage device and fit an internal music storage drive.
What are my options, please?
Im confused about requirements for speed and best brands. While being cost aware.
What NUC model do you have?
Many NUCs in the ‘tall’ form factor case can accommodate a 2.5inch sata disk/Ssd providing it is no more than 9mm thick.
Where is your NUC located? Will mechanical noise from a hard disk be an issue? If so, you will want to opt for an SSD.
How big (in storage terms) is your local library? At any given capacity, SSDs are relatively expensive but can be found with up to 8TBytes (8TB is enough for about 15,000 albums at CD quality).
When available in the desired capacity, hard disks are cheaper but you are limited to those meant for laptops which are lower performance. The performance does not matter unless, possibly, you want to support the simultaneous use of multiple zones without grouping. If you need large capacity you may find your choice limited. A quick search did not yeild any suitable hard disks with greater than 2TB capacity.
Any SATA SSD will have good enough performance. The use profile of the internal storage on Roon OS is not demanding (mostly write once) and so you do not need to pay extra for SSDs with extended write operation specifications.
A popular choice for SATA SSD is the Samsung QVO range which can be found in capacities up to 8TB. The EVO range is more expensive, does not offer such high capacities and has no advantage in this application.
1 Like
Samsung is a good brand. As for speed, any SSD is overkill for music storage. The speed of a USB HDD is already faster than is needed for music playback. Be aware there you will need to keep an external drive to create Roon database backups because those cannot be done to internal drives, or backup to a network location.
I would suggest staying with external storage, the effort and issues in making the transition are, imho, not worth it.
Any 2.5 inch SATA drive will fit a ‘tall’ NUC (the H version) internally, if you’re tempted to go SSD (because they are quick and quiet), there’s no need to spend extra on performance - eg, don’t pay the premium on EVO over QVO types, QVO is fine as music tends to be written once and read many times.