Hi. I really don’t want a computer in my lounge to be the core / storage for Roon. I’ve about 1,000 albums. Without going crazy, what would be the optimum Synology NAS to use?
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A Synology NAS is a computer. I.m sure others will make some recommendations for you but I suggest you also consider and nuc or the sonictransporter with a SSD, cheaper, quieter nad smaller than a NAS that will run Roon at its best.
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think the QNAP NAS’s are more capable processors to cope with Roon…then again a NAS is not the ideal place to run a process like Roon. as you need to add in things like more RAM and SSD etc…as noted above berry to get a NUC and or wait it out perhaps for the RCK
The QNAP option using the recommended spec works extremely well. 24/7 streaming all over the house and you can store it out of the way. I haven’t turned it off or have to perform any maintenance in two months.
The 4 bay tvs-471 has an I3 processor and 8Gb which aligns with Roon’s stated preference for NAS capabilities. V fast indeed with Roon and to be honest it works better than my I7 pc did previously (that rig had its issues admittedly).
Main drawback is cost - you’re looking at best part of 1600 pounds for the main device plus 3 HDD’s and a Solid State drive to run Roon core. Use it as backup for other media too.
Its now my main pc in my office connect to an HDMI, keyboard, mouse it has all the apps.
Obviously quite a bit more faffing setting it up initially if you’re not immediately Linux/ server savvy like i wasn’t. Now its up and running i’m really happy with it. V keen to see how it handles forthcoming updates within 1.3 with presumably its greater CPU demands etc from upsampling etc…
Sounds like 1.3 will include additional options to run those smaller less costly options that philr mentions. Worth waiting to see how that goes i would have thought.
I second the QNAP suggestion. I am running a QNAP TVS-471 with an i3 and 16GB of RAM and it runs great. I have not had a day’s trouble with this set up and I don’t have to dedicate a PC to the task of running the Core files. I do agree that it can be costly. I have both the Synology and QNAP NAS devices here and would not ever think about running Roon on a Synology.
“not ever think about running Roon on a Synology.”
Seems a bit of an overstatement, but to each his own. There is a reason the installer package is available for both: properly set up, it can run just fine on a Synology. If you don’t have either yet, and have no reason to care which you might buy, by all means, one should consider the QNAP. But I made a decision to go with Synology before I ever heard of Roon, and I have zero regrets, with for general serving and for Roon. I have run Roon on a Synology DWRS815, and even briefly on an 1812+. Right now, it is running flawlessly on a DWRS2416RP+, and has been for weeks without any maintenance whatsoever. I am waiting for delivery of a Mivera Superserver to see how it runs. I expect it to run very well, as it is intended to run Roon, and it is exceptionally cost-effective.
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Personally I prefer the Synology administration (DiskStationManager). I think it is easier and better structured. But QNAP has the better hardware specs. I would like to swap my active RoonServer install from the QNAP back to a Synology NAS (e.g. DS3617xs - XEON CPU. but currently I do not need 12 bays…)
It could also be due to the fact that I originally started with Synology and feel more comfortable with it because of that.
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Thanks everyone for your help and pointing me in a different direction. Now talking to Vortexbox about their VB Microserver.
Strange, its rinning fine on my synolgy 1815+
Hi John,
It will run for sure on a Synology DS1815+ and it might be totally sufficient performance-wise for individual setups. But I can’t make any predictions about the performance as different users might have different setup. It will depend on different factors
- Amount and format of audio files
- How many endpoints will be in the setup
- Does the audio material need to be converted before streaming it to the Roon player device
- additional software packages, that run beside RoonServer
- number of simultaneous streams
- on 1.3: DSP settings
- probably a lot more…
I can only point to the official recommended hardware specifications. But this does not mean that a Synology DS1815+ can’t satisfy the needs of someone’s individual setup. I just can’t predict it. 
Holy cow I didn’t mean to call everyone’s baby ugly. I was going by the Roon recommendation for the QNAP NAS. Sorry for all those with Synology NAS that I offended. I actually have a Synology DS1815+. It’s a great machine. The software stack is much better than the QNAP in my opinion.
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My personal assessment was that the drawbacks of running Roon core on a NAS outweighed the benefits, and I already have a perfectly capable Synology DS1815+
If you don’t already have a compatible NAS I see even less reason to go that route.
For me, the hardware replacement cycles were completely out of alignment. While I would typically replace something like a NUC every 18 to 24 months, a properly specified NAS for all non Roon requirements is more likely to be on a 36 to 48 month replacement cycle.
When you take your base NAS requirements and add Roon capability, the cost cost difference is likely to exceed that of a NUC. Looking at the more capable QNAP hardware, this factor was magnified significantly.
NAS devices do a lot of things far better than individual computers or servers but Roon is not part of that brief. As Roon evolves it is, IMO, it is the function most likely to outpace the capabilities of that NAS.
Again IMO, the pending arrival of Roon Core Kit only strengthens the case against NAS collocation.
None of this is to say it can’t or shouldn’t be done, or that people aren’t very happy with their NAS based Roon cores. Just be very clear eyed about your priorities, objectives and expectations.
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That was funny! Yeah, and I didn’t mean to suggest you had called the baby ugly. I only wanted to clarify that I think Roon can run just fine on a Synology NAS, subject of course to a lot of variables. Right now, my DWRS2416RP+ is running RoonServer [thanks much to Christopher Rieke] and is the primary storage for my music files. That is pretty much all it does. Roon runs on an SSD, and there is an SSD cache drive as well. In this respect, it’s abstractly a lot like an NUC with a very robust RAID set of drives. I’ve spent a fair bit of time trying to make sure I don’t have any network issues that would affect audio. We’ve done some tests around the house and had different users simultaneously play different DSD files to three different DACs with excellent response time and no dropouts. File rescan of about 40,000 files is very quick, though I don’t have to do that very often, and Watched Folder monitoring is almost instantaneous.
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That is awesome. My QNAP is also dedicated to Roon. Nothing else runs on it except Roon and my performance is also excellent. Nice when stuff works the way it should.
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Roon on NAS
I’ve tried to find a solution in here but with no success. Apologies if it posted elsewhere.
I’m currently running Roon core on a windows PC which was hard wired to mt network, but have recently moved and roon core is now running on the PC but by wi-fi. This cuses loading problems esp on high res files. Music is stored on a Synology NAS which plays via micro rendu to my DAC. Question is can I run Roon core on the NAS and not the PC? The NAS is hard wired to the router and this could solve the problem. Can some one supply a simple tutorial on how to get roon running on a NAS and into micro rendu?
Any help much appreciated!!!
That depends on your Synology model.
It is a requirement to be equipped with an x86-64bit cpu.
The faster, the better. Take a look at the requirements of Roon. If the cpu is less performant, it doesn’t mean it won’t run on it. This is something you can better try on your own to see if it suits your needs.
Many thanks for the speedy reply! The NAS is a Synology DS412+ with the following
Intel Atom D2700
CPU clock rate 2.13 GHz
CPU cores 2
Total physical memory 1024MB - thus short of the 4GB needed.
Is it worth trying roon on this NAS or should I try to optimize wifi connection with the PC running Roon core currently?
If it worth trying do I run roon server or roon core on the NAS?
Totally confused so any help much appreciated!!!
You can actually upgrade the RAM in the Synology. 1024 MB seems quite low for RoonServer.
But I’d only recommend this if you are familiar with such upgrades.
Another option is to use a dedicated RoonServer machine. Something like a small NUC.
I’d really recommend using ethernet connections for the core.
I’ll be setting up a DS716+II with 8GB Ram and a 64GB Sandisk extreme USB 3.0 drive. Migrating from an older Synology NAS that was 32 bit. Will report back on how it works with my Oppo 105, I hear it will work over USB but not as an official end point…correct?