You may wish to check out the SonicTransporter from Small Green Computer. It is less expensive than an equivalent Nucleis and provides at least equal performance. In fact, Small Green Computer says that the SonicTransporter uses all 8 cores of an i7 whereas the Nucleis does not. I have an i7 SonicTransporter without internal music storage. My music is on a NAS. I have had it running for almost a year now and it has performed very well. It can be furnished with an internal drive if you wish.
The Nucleus (nor the + variation) does not have 8 cores. It uses a cooler variation that we’ve found to be more than effective for Roon, mostly because Roon does not make good use of more than 2 cores if you are a typical user, or 4 cores if you are doing advanced DSD/DSP in multiple zones simultaneously.
The current version of the sonicTransporter i7 has a 6 core (12 virtual cores). It’s nice to have extra Cores for the OS. Also many users who are using the sonicTransporter i7 are running HQPlayer for their upsampling and Roon doing the control.
HQPlayer can use all cores effectively and it’s also nice to have some extra cores for Roon.
By cooler, do you mean the mobile version of the i7? Is it the same or similar to the ones used in the NUC i7? Andrew’s offering uses the desktop processor. It really does not matter anyway since the case of the SonicTransporter is barely above room temperature.
What components in the Nucleis+ are responsible for the increased price above Andrew’s offering? When I purchased my SonicTransporter there was a substantial savings over an equivalent Nucleis.
Or if you’re even moderately handy you can build a Ryzen 7 based, mini-ITX machine with 8GB RAM and M.2/SSD storage in a HDPlex fanlesss case w/200w PS. Max boost 4.1Ghz with 8 cores/16 threads, no waiting, for less than $900. Add ROCK, you’re good to go.
Oh yeah, you’ll need a graphics card, at least for setup.
It is in the “mobile” moniker, but not meant for mobile computers. These “desktop” and “mobile” verticals seem to get used less and less by Intel because they don’t paint the full picture.
The CPU we use is less powerful (but more than ample for Roon), but uses less power. The total wattage TDP is much lower than the “desktop” CPU you refer to. We are always looking into other CPUs for future revisions of Nucleus, and the TDP will go down even further.
Our goal is not to create a hotrod with the most power. We aim to create the best server to run Roon.
The case temperature should always be very warm at hottest, and usuallyy be similar to the room temperature. A hot case means you have poor heat dissipation.
That’s like asking what components make iPhones more expensive than the LG G7 ThinQ. The G7 is a hotrod compared to the iPhone, and less expensive as well… but specs don’t tell the whole story.
Exactly… If you want the best specs box for the least cost, DIY components always win.
Just be aware that there are some specific bios settings required with Linux to prevent kernel issues. Not sure if there are any issues with Windows.
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Hmm, I’ve installed ROCK on a NUC, without any problems (as have many others), but I take your point.
After I detailed the parts list, I’ve almost talked myself into making a buy. Think I’ll wait for the new Ryzens that are coming out this summer.
We’ll see what happens.
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