Couldn’t agree more , I had WiFi running mostly due to the house design .
Many South African houses have a tendency to be brick and plaster walls so not very WiFi friendly. Add to that a Slab and Concrete flat roof so no loft space or wall spaces to run cables. So it was going to be a chore to run ethernet.
I bit the proverbial and ran ethernet outside , up the wall, across the roof and down another wall . Then “Sunproofed it” as UV is big issue for cable and any plastic here due to our sunshine levels and the altitude (2600 meteres). Absolute PITA but …
I haven’t looked back, never a blip in signal and that’s why you hear me chirping about Wi Fi all the time its the only way to guarantee trouble free signal
My Roon Rock installation on an Intel NUC (8i5) is virtually 100% stable. I can’t recall any issues whatsoever either before or after the 1.8 upgrade save for an unusual intermittent missing metadata with Roon Radio that was resolved just before the release of 1.8.
I use Roon control apps on both Windows 10 and iPad, and don’t have any issues using any of my Roon endpoints (Linn Klimax (ethernet connected), Sonore microRendu (ethernet connected), Naim Muso Qb (wi-fi) or Chromecast (wi-fi) for a bedroom based system).
I have been using Roon Rock ever since I started using Roon quite a few years ago, so I can’t compare my system’s reliability directly with any other possible Roon installations, but I certainly get the impression that Roon Rock is more reliable than most (if not all) alternative installations.
Roon (in conjunction with Roon Rock) just works for me with none of the buffering issues or track skipping issues that appear to plague some Roon users. It’s as straightforward as that.
When I first got Roon, back in January 2017, I first ran it on a NUC using Windows 10, because it was also used for Plex. However, in June 2017 I installed ROCK onto a second (7th gen i5) Intel NUC, and have never looked back.
I have been running Roon Rock for around 4 years, using the same NUC. No issues with Rock at all and has been running continuously. About 3-4 times, I have had issues where it would not play tracks on Tidal (although will play local files stored on a NAS drive). This was fixed by turning all wifi and internet devices off and then back on again.
I ran Roon on (unsupported) WHS 2011 on an old HP Microserver from when I first tried Roon in September '19, to last summer when I picked up an 8i5 NUC. On WHS 2011 I had a few issues, including backups failing and sluggish performance, but since moving to a NUC with ROCK almost a year ago I’ve had no issues at all. Nicely responsive and, well, it just works.
Highly recommended path to take, although I do realise it’s yet more expense.
To answer the original question, I went from a windows 7 PC with WiFi to a NUC8I7BEH/ROCK server with 16GB ram, Samsung m.2 drive for OS/Database and Samsung internal SSD for my music library. Have a USB SSD for Backups.
Had a few drops and skips with the PC and WiFi but it worked most of the time. After adding the NUC and Ethernet to my endpoints the few issues I had experienced disappeared and it has been solid since then. I read about the problem other folks have and I worry a little every time an update is installed but I’ve gone from 1.6 to 1.8 with no issues at all.
My Network is nothing special, a modem, an ASUS GT-AC5300 router and a 8 port switch for Etherent. Only WiFi in use is Android phone and IPAD 12.9 remotes.
I have about 10TN of music stored on a NAS, which I used to manage and control with Logitech Media Server (with everything hard-wired, no Wi-Fi). I switched to a ROCK on an Intel NUC more than 2 years ago and have had zero issues with stability. You don’t need a special fanless case as I don’t think I my NUC has ever gotten hot enough for the dan to start up. By distributing the database and control software to the NUC, my NAS works much more efficiently and its fans only kick on when I copy nee files onto the device. You don’t need an expensive NUC - streaming music does not use much of the CPU or memory, and the ROCK software plus the databse for my 10TB of files is less than 36GB
look let me give my experience. I was using my mac, and I did change to a dedicated NUC, I paid for it in Ebay 120 € I have connect my external hardrive 4tb with already 1.8 tb of music. Connection through ethernet to streamer LINN. No problems at all, it works fine. The NUC actually works as a server. As well I do ripping.
hope this help.
The ROCK on my NUC is stable but DAMN SLOW!
I only know 1.8 cos after a two week trial I’m now in my second week as a (paid) Roon-user. For now I use Tidal and some Live Radio only.
I’m used to Tidal via Node2/BlueOS, play UPNP via Mconnect and BubbleUPnP… All works well and fast. But not for ROCK unfortunately
Starting up Roon takes 6 to 15 seconds in 100% of the cases.
In 75% of the cases it also takes 6 to 15 seconds loading (searching/finding/clicking) artists, albums, playlist and so on. Same with adding as favourite etc. (Once playing the (play-) buttons are fine (quick response on play, pause frwrd …) tough)
Doesn’t matter what Remote is used (two different android remotes, wifi laptop remote, wired desktop remote). Sometimes my Android Remote crashes. I connected the NUC directly to the switch but nothing changed.
My specs in this case:
Intel NUC 10i5FNH / 8GB RAM / EVO M.2 250GB / Latest BIOS
Roon Server software Version 1.8 (build 790) stable / OS Version 1.0 (build 227) stable
Static IP
Streamer connected to Netgear Plus Switch GS108Ev2 which is connected to the router: Experia Box v10A (↓200/200↑)
The NUC is directly connected to the Experia Box v10A
Bluesound Node2 (connected to the netgear switch)
Library Size: 100% of 227 GB available cos I’m a roon-newb
Very positive experience with ROCK on NUC 8i7BEH. Went from constantly restarting a Windows laptop to never having to think about the Core on the NUC— it’s just always on and trouble free.
That’s a statement of fact as it applies to me.
Now, on to conjecture: From the number of posts I see from people having trouble with Nucleus, I’ve been coming to the conclusion that people are having generally better and more stable experiences with NUC than with Nucleus. [No flames, please, I *said * it was conjecture].
Funny that people complaining about real issues with the product are considered toxic. We should all jump around from flower to flower like the happy bees that never complain.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to make this a specific thread about my issues as I have opened specific support threads for each. However, just since you asked, the machine is an i5 with 16gb of ram and two SSD’s, connected via Ethernet cable. 99% of my music is on tidal, I only have a few albums on the local drive of the same Roon core computer. The issues are database not loading (requires renaming of Roon folder, re-installing and restore from backup, as you can imagine this procedure can get quite “toxic” when you have to do it twice a week, sometimes even twice a day) and sometimes Roon starting but not displaying a GUI (this required removing Roon from the windows firewall and restarting). I also had the usual assortment of “tidal media loading slowly” etc
So thanks a lot for all of you who answered about ROCK performance, I am definitely interested.
How would you go about setting up a remote for that? I have a Logitech Hub and remote is there any way to make it work with a ROCK? And preferably a way that does not involve strange words like github, python, repository, etc?
thanks, I am familiar with Raspberry Pi endpoints as I already own several. By the way, I was never able to make Ropiee work with a remote so I am using Hifiberry OS which works great.,
But I was hoping I can run Rock as an endpoint too - I mean, just connect ROCK to my DAC. I know this is not recommended but frankly I do not hear the difference between RoonCore to DAC directly and Roon Core-Endpoint-DAC.
So assuming ROCK can run as an endpoint as well, is it possible to setup a Logitech remote for it?
A Roon Nucleus dealer commented he has units with owners as endpoints only ( thats expensive for what a RPi can do with ease) but whatever works, the ROCK can be used for endpoint only yes - just dont setup the login and password and you can update from the web GUI by doing a reinstall - do this all the time with a silent PC Mobo SFF case Intel D510MO and boots for HDD or SDD is ok either way.
But of course if you run Rock as a server it can also have a dac or more connected directly.
You dont have to run ROCK on a NUC but it is best for compatibility. Remotes like on Ropieee and OSMC do work for any Roon Zone. there are others like RooExtend too but not sure about using a Logitech unless maybe using it Ropieee and FLIRC IR dongle.
Your old problems could have been a bad memory module or SSD too.
I recently changed the M2 SSD in my Rock NUC, after a couple of years of service, and noticed a huge performance increase. Its definitely worth using the fastest M2 drive you can find with Rock.
