I would like to upgrade the RAM in mt Nucleus+ to speed things up a bit as my library is approaching 200K tracks, between my library, Tidal, and Qobuz. I can’t seem to find instructions or the best RAM replacement for it. Any advice will be appreciated.
RoonLabs is many times on record that Roon OS crashes if it doesn’t have enough RAM, but if it doesn’t crash then it has enough RAM and adding more RAM does not make it faster at all.
This is because Roon OS does not swap virtual memory to disk, it’s all in RAM. So if any empty RAM remains on top of that it doesn’t help
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A Nucleus+ should be fine for 200K tracks though, but there may be certain library properties that slow it down. If you are experiencing actual performance issues it’s probably best to open a new topic in Support to get this addressed
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Moved to the Nucleus discussion category.
To provide a speed boost to an existing Nucleus (Rev A or B, regular or +) many have reported that changing the SSD as well a RAM change/upgrade to dual memory slots does the job.
I have the NUC7i7DNKE which uses the same NUC board as the Nucleus+, when I built it, I used the fastest Gen 3 PCI NMVe SSD I could find (the limitation is PCI Gen3). This is a
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250 GB PCIe NVMe M.2
250GB is the smallest offered, so overkill for the Roon Database, but good to know there is plenty of space capacity. At 110k albums, I only have 95% usage.
Then for the RAM I fitted
Corsair Vengeance SODIMM 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2400MHz CL16 Memory.
This been optimized for Laptop/Notebooks using the Intel 6th Generation Intel Core i5 and i7 Processors, as the NUC do.
I could of gone 32GB (2x16GB) at the same spec, but there is a doubling of cost.
There isn’t to go from 8GB (2x4GB) to the 16GB (2x8GB) these are virtually the same price now. However ROCK doesn’t seem to be hungry on RAM and certainly doesn’t affect operation until over 500k tracks.
These items can be found on Amazon and are very easy to fit.
Just remember to back up your Roon database first, so it can be immediately restored to the new SSD drive.
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Is the ram upgrade a simple swap out, wasn’t aware the Nucleus Plus had dual slots for ram. I have nothing on the internal storage, all my music derived from ,library in NAS, Qobuz and Tidal
Hi,
The internal SSD is exclusively used for the Roon database, which is built as you add albums from any source.
Using a fatest device will improve the responsiveness of the server with the Roon Remote app.
Simon
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Which SSD would you recommend?
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250 GB PCIe NVMe M.2
As per my post above
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The M.2 SSD that holds the Roon OS (before it is loaded into RAM) and the SQL database for your Roon Library/Settings/etc. It needs to be fast but doesn’t need very much space (early revA N+'s shipped with 64GB SSD’s).
However, moving to two SODIMMS of RAM, of the correct latency and frequency (i.e. PCXXXXX/2400mhz or whatever the spec is for the DIMM that came in your device), often results in minor speed improvements for the UX. Many users have reported the same…and, aside from them all being delusional…it seems to be a zero-risk mod if it resides safely in your budget. I upgraded to 32GB (16GB x2) in my revA Nucleus Plus and am pleased with the upgrade. Especially as my wife has begun to use Roon more (and via her phone…using the dreaded airplay), the UX remains snappy.
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How did you get the new OS/DB SSD to work? What process did you use? A drive cloner? Copy/paste of files?
Did you have to boot the nucleus and use a keyboard and mouse to do something?
Or did you just pull the old half-size OS SSD, remove the half-length hold down riser, install the new OS SSD and secure it with the full length, previously unused old down riser and screw?
Please explain your process in more detail.
Thank you.
I never really got around to it. It wasn’t worth the trouble. My QNAP NAS works just fine so I left it alone.
With Nucleu you can upgrade the M.2 os drive by following the ROCK install guide (the appropriate steps that is), then send a note to Roon Support asking them to change roon Nucleus to the correct OS (for thermal settings needed for Nucleus).
Installing the M.2 OS drive is simple as well as memory if you want to upgrade that while you have the box open. Just make sure you have a good DB backup that you can restore after all is said and done.
Might review this also?
That was the “old way” to do it. The procedure now is to open a Support Request by clicking on the “Get Help” button in Support and selecting the relevant options in the Typeform screens. This submits your request via Typeform to have the Nucleus version of RoonOS installed remotely by the relevant Roon Labs team.
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I would purchase a USB Drive and add it to the Nucleus. Copy your library over to the USB drive and then configure the USB drive to backup to the NAS.
This will speed up your navigation experience more so than adding Ram or a new internal SSD. You would also have a another copy of your library.
Local library on the server whether internal or external is always the best way to go for the user experience.
–MD
Thanks all for the help.
I’m good to go.
IMPORTANT: This process was used on a Roon Nucleus+ Rev A
The Rev B model uses a M.2 NVME drive vs the M.2 Sata drive in the Rev A.
If you want to use this process on a Rev B, then you’ll need a different M.2 NVME specific cloning device, like this one:
Figured out an alternate way to proceed using M.2 Sata to M.2 NVME direct drive cloning.
Clone the original M.2 Sata SSD (OS/Database Drive) to the new M.2 NVME drive.
Install the new Cloned M.2 NVME drive and presto. Upgraded OS/Database drive.
Used this device here:
Ram Upgrade:
OS/Database SSD Upgrade:
I also upgraded my SATA Music SSD Drive:
And cloned it using this:
Additionally I use these drives for my scheduled backups:
I do one backup every 7 days on each drive
They fit perfectly in the back of the Roon Nucleus Rev A and Rev B units.
I format them NTFS and label them Nucleus A and Nuclueus B (A is the top slot on the nucleus and B is the bottom usb slot. (So they show in the same position in the UI as on the physical uniit.
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