Synology DS223 Sufficient as Roon Server

[Ben_Lau1 (Ben Lau)]

Hi,

I just become a Roon user, and now using a quite low end notebook as Roon server. Would like to add a NAS to take over the Roon server role. Wonder if Synology DS223 (or even DS223J) would be sufficent to use as Roon Server?

[KMM]

@Ben_Lau1

DS223

Short answer is no, it has to be an Intel compatible processor which the Realtek isn’t

[Wade_Oram]

My understanding is that the DS223 and DS223J use a Realtek RTD1619B processor which is an Arm processor. As a consequence, they cannot run the Roon Server application.

By contrast, the DS224+ uses a 4-core Celeron J4125 processor which could run Roon Server if you do not intend to run heavy DSP - e.g. Upsampling or EQ on high bit rate DSD.

You would probably want to put the maximum amount (6GB) of memory in it to support anything other than the tiniest library.

Personally, I suspect that this would be quite limited as a Roon Server platform and I wouldn’t recommend it. Others with more experience of Roon on Synology may be better placed to comment.

[fietser]

Here is some more info.

Roon Server on NAS

[Ben_Lau1 (Ben Lau)]

Thanks for your reply. In that case, would a DS423+ (using Intel Celeron J4125) or a DS723+ (using AMD Ryzen R1600) be ok?

[Wade_Oram]

The DS423+ will have the same limitations as the DS224+. I would not recommend it personally.

The DS723+ using the Ryzen R1600 should be be fine. The same processor is used in the DS1522+ which I know is used as a Roon Server by more than one person on these forum.

It’s single core performance will be better and it can be upgraded to have up to 32GB of memory.

I have a DS1522+ but I don:t use it to host Roon Server.

[Ben_Lau1 (Ben Lau)]

Thanks for all the input. Appreciate much.

Forgot to mention that my intention is to use the NAS just as a music library for the about 12,000 songs I’ve ripped from my CD (all in Apple Lossless), such that I can stream it using Roon to an end point streamer to play it. Nothing fancy, just to stream music for playing. Would that lower the CPU requirement enough for a more basic NAS system?

[mjw]

The Realtek RTD1619B used in this NAS is an old, low-powered CPU, and is unlikely to perform well as a Roon server.

It’ll be fine for serving media files, but you’ll also need another modest computer to run Roon server.

Edit:

@Wade_Oram

… a Realtek RTD1619B processor which is an Arm processor.

I hadn’t spotted this, so what @Wade_Oram says goes.

[DDPS]

I would echo what @Wade_Oram says.

And while the DS723+ is adequate, for a bit more money ($150), you can get a 4-drive model that enables greater data durability with more redundant disk storage (that is, you can lose two drives without losing any data) - the DS923+.

[Tony_Fardella]

I will agree with that as well. I have been running ROON on a DS723+ with 32GB of RAM for about 2 years now with no problems at all. I do wish that I purchased the DS922 or DS1522 instead though. Would be nice to have more drive bays as well as an extra USB port (one for a backup drive and another to connect to the UPS for auto shutdown).

[Wade_Oram]

@DDPS

And while the DS723+ is adequate, for a bit more money ($150), you can get a 4-drive model that enables greater data durability with more redundant disk storage (that is, you can lose two drives without losing any data) - the DS923+.

Whilst I agree with this up to a point, it has to be born in mind that the extra drives mean extra expense to populate the drive bays so its not just the extra $150 to gain any benefit.

Also, with a four drive NAS, I, personally, would go for RAID 5 or SHR with single drive redundancy rather than a RAID 10, RAID 6 or SHR2 array with 2 drive redundancy. I ran my 5 bay NAS with 2 drive redundancy for years with no real benefit and have just recently rebuilt my drive array as SHR in order to claim the extra storage space.

[DDPS]

Yes, I was in a hurry and thought that part was implicit, but thank you for elaborating. Of course, you don’t have to buy the drives right away. You can start with two drives in an SHR1 configuration and then once you add more, you can initiate an in-place conversion to SHR2.

Personally, I like SHR2 for several reasons outlined in my now-infamous “Roon on (Synology) NAS Primer” post…YMMV!

[Frank_M (Frank Minne)]

@Ben_Lau1
Instead of using your NAS as Roon Core, you could also invest in a little MOCK like the GMKtec G3 Plus or the GMKtec G5 Mini PC. They will outperform any NAS with ease, and are very cheap. Also the power consumption is very low so it can easily run 24/7.

MOCK Success Report - GMKtec Mini PC N97

I can confirm that the GMKtec Mini PC N97 appears to work fine with the latest (as of this writing) Roon ROCK factory reset image. I almost always stick to officially supported NUC part numbers when installing Roon OS. I picked up the GMKtec during the Prime Day sale and figured why not give my a try? There was no need to change any BIOS settings. Just flash the image to a thumb drive, insert it, boot the image by pressing F7 within 3 seconds of power-on, and follow the prompts. YMMV, but t…

[Arindal]

@Wade_Oram

the DS224+ uses a 4-core Celeron J4125 processor which could run Roon Server if you do not intend to run heavy DSP - e.g. Upsampling or EQ on high bit rate DSD.

I had a machine with a similar Celeron CPU and they are surprisingly capable of multi-zone, EQ and DSP operations, even upsampling to higher DSD rates (128 definitely, even 256 was doable if I recall if correctly).

The weak spot of these ´slim´ Celeron models is their limited single-thread speed which might lead to sluggish browsing experience and delayed operations when handling a bigger library. 20k tracks was fine, 50k+ was bringing my previous machine to the limits (Note this is a very rough estimate and actual library size it can handle might vary).

So if the OP is willing to accept a bit of reactive UI, this Celeron would do the job.

@fietser

Here is some more info.

Note that these recommendations by roonlabs date back to 2018 when general situation with CPU in various NAS models was different. While entry-level consumer NAS models advertised for file and cloud services, seemingly all have very weak CPU which are not recommended, one or two steps up in price in most cases give you pretty capable units, which are advertised for multimedia, HDMI and 4K video processing. DS723+ and DS923+ in the Synology world are good examples for fast CPU, and I see no point in saving on a snappy user experience.

[Ben_Lau1 (Ben Lau)]

Thanks everyone for the very useful inputs. Will chew them up in deciding the next course of action for the Roon Server. Cheers!!

[Johnny_Ooooops (Listener in Chief)]

FWIW, I think that for my purposes it’s been much better to have a ROCK (or currently MOCK) and keep my music library on a pretty basic attached usb ssd enclosure, and use the NAS as backup. The only proper non-backup-related software I run on my 918+ at this point is Plex. For me the separation of concerns with a very inexpensive NUC is worth it - it’s just plain simpler. I did run Roon on the Sinology for a while but - it has felt more like an appliance unattended etc running on a separate machine. There was occasional futzing required (for me, ymmv) and while I clearly don’t mind futzing, I prefer to make small investments to avoid it where I depend on something just working. Many love to have their core on their NAS, so no judgment either way - just pointing out that there are

[Wade_Oram]

@Arindal

@Wade_Oram

the DS224+ uses a 4-core Celeron J4125 processor which could run Roon Server if you do not intend to run heavy DSP - e.g. Upsampling or EQ on high bit rate DSD.

I had a machine with a similar Celeron CPU and they are surprisingly capable of multi-zone, EQ and DSP operations, even upsampling to higher DSD rates (128 definitely, even 256 was doable if I recall if correctly).

Whilst it’s true that the processor is perfectly adequate for basic use on the DS224+ and the DS423+ (my first ‘always on’ Roon Server, used for about 2 months, was hosted on a DS1019+ which used a 4-core Celeron J3455 which is even slower), I think that the more worrying aspect is the 2Gbyte initial installed memory and the 6GBytes that is the maximum supported RAM on these machines.

For small libraries, 6GByte may well be enough on ROCK or Nucleus devices with a stripped down OS running nothing but Roon Server (and the various support services like SMB server and client). However, I’m not so confident that it is sufficient for hosting Roon Server on a NAS which runs a richer set of services and, sooner or later, will likely be asked to do other things as well run Roon Server.

Having said that, since I posted, the OP has stated that he indents to run a library of about 12,000 local tracks. Assuming, he is not integrating Tidal/Qobuz libraries as well, this is not a large library by any means and so he may get away with it. However, if I was looking for a NAS to host Roon, I, personally, would still opt for a device that offers the possibility of upgrading the RAM beyond 8GBytes.

@Johnny_Ooooops

FWIW, I think that for my purposes it’s been much better to have a ROCK (or currently MOCK) and keep my music library on a pretty basic attached usb ssd enclosure, and use the NAS as backup.

Although I don’t run ROCK, I do something similar. I use a NUC running Roon Server on DietPi with local library storage on the NUC. Every night the database is backed up to my NAS using the Roon Server facility and, additionally, the local library files are sync’d (two way) with a folder on my NAS.

I originally put the local library storage on my Roon Server NUC in order to minimize network traffic when streaming local library content because, at the time, my network was not ideal by any stretch of the imagination. Whilst this is not strictly necessary any more since my network has been significantly upgraded (see the description of the changes to my network in my post at Network Upgrade Journey ), it never hurts to reduce network traffic - especially as some of the other activities I perform are very demanding on the network.