well, not having to pay for a Windows license for one. Getting the reference platform - the one the devs are targeting, so that should be the “best” is another advantage. The paradox, of course, is the one you pointed out, which is that because Microsoft, ROCK apparently isn’t as good as Roon-on-windows in a few edge cases. “Appliance, no Windows Update or other computer things worries” is also a huge advantage, as a philosophy. It’s the exact opposite of geek cred when you think about it: RTFM, follow the steps, and live happily ever after with the device that’s meant for the allergic to technology crowd who want a dealer to set things up for them.
Thank you. I just wanted to know. Personally I couldn’t see a reason. But now consider me elucidated on the topic.
I was all for it until I saw the performance is actually lower.
As has been pointed out, that really only applies to edge cases with excessively large libraries. Top 1% of large libraries is the way to think about it. Also, they’ve said they’ve made various improvements to this since they originally posted the “windows if faster for these edge cases” message.
Think of it this way: the hardware they are selling, the Nucleus and Nucleus+, are Linux based. If Windows was really such a huge advantage, don’t you think they’ve have figured out a way to make these appliances run on the embedded Windows Server instead?
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Hello,
I’ve just installed Rock on a NUC8i3BEH (maufacturing date on the box is begining of May), with 8go and a 120go M.2 nothing else for the moment.
I use Roon Air to stream on my Devialet 200, ok so far (mainly Qobuz hires and seom DSD files).
I’ve just a question about some additional BIOS settings as the fan is always running (even when I play nothing, and with no library indexing).
Do you recommend custom cooling or power BIOS settings (currently I have the latest BIOS version 0071, set to the defaults) ?
Thanks for your support.
Fanless chassis
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yes, I agree with you, this is the solution for 0 noise.
But don’t you think some settings could be made to optimize the fan behaviour on a standard nuc box without SQ impact (I’m not looking for zero noise, but just to minimize, for me if there is no load the fan should not run) ?
I mean, for example, the Fan Controle Mode set to Quiet or enable the Fan Off capability (which is not the default) in the BIOS could help, but as the Rock installation guide says to set BIOS settings to default… I’m not sure it’s a good idea, that’s why I ask your feedbacks.
An even better option than fanless case is to have the NUC outside the listening room. Then it will be better cooled and will not throttle the CPU.
I don’t think that is how a NUC will behave, AFAIK. The fan in a standard NUC will always be running, even at the lowest power consumption.
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How long ago did you set up the library and how large is it? It’s normal for the Core to do some extra work when you set it up. You said ‘no library indexing’. Does this include background audio analysis (Settings>Library)? (setting it to Off will disengage it and stop that processing).
I think anyone will tell you that asking the Nuc to run at it’s normal speed and slowing down cooling will affect the lifetime of the computer. So the tradeoff is threeway: Fan Speed (noise) - Computer performance - Durability
I restored a backup yesterday after the installation.
This morning, I thought the fan could be lower as I was not using Roon for hours.
I will have a look at the background audio analysis.
Your’re right about durability… but I just would like to be as low as possible in term of fan speed at idle, when low power consumption. Maybe it’s a meanless effort, just a silly question as I’m like a kid playing with his new stuff 
In that case, why bother with a NUC, build a full sized PC and have plenty of cooling and more CPU power. If the machine is not in the same room as the audio stack, there is no reason to limit yourself to a NUC.
[Edit, sorry didn’t realize I was in the ROCK section, if you want to use ROCK and have official support then you should use one of the approved NUCs. I will say that modding the NUC into a fanless NUC case is not officially supported either as far as I know.]
I thought official support support was limited to approved NUCs?
LOL. Sorry, didn’t notice I was responding in the ROCK section. Yes, official support only if you use the recommended hardware with ROCK. So take my previous comment with that in mind, including changing to a different case.
That’s an understandable question. A good thing about the Community Forum is there are a lot of users with diverse backgrounds and experience. You never know unless you ask. Maybe someone will have an insight.
Well, I just modified the setting for the cooling, from balanced to quiet.
I hope this is supported…
Idle, it’s almost not audible, big difference with the balanced bios setting
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As I understand this (and I am no expert here), it’s possible the NUC could throttle performance to try and maintain the adequate temperature range. Quiet allows a warmer CPU, but if it is asked to do too much and exceed the temperature range it will throttle performance to keep things thermally protected. In practice, you may not notice this unless you start doing DSP or significant upsampling.
Something to keep in mind if you think your Nuc isn’t working as well as it should.
Here’s the Intel document on fan settings: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005946/mini-pcs.html
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Good find.
Thanks !
So, after one day using the NUC8i3BEH, as Roon Air is working perfectly, I take the decision to only connect the Nuc to the Network, I forget the USB plan.
I’ll use the quiet mode until I put the Nuc in my electrical/network cabinet (I have to make some cleanup) 
I think the power consumption of the fan is negligible, so having it running in the balanced mode will not be an issue when not using the Nuc in the cabinet.
I will use the default mode Balanced to comply with the Roon requirements and for durability.
Thanks to all of you for your feedbacks.
I’m really happy with this 8i3 Nuc, upsampling everything to DSD64 shows only a speed of 4x to 4.5x, meaning no more 25% of a core for DSP.
How do you get to see this information please?