What about Roon Server on Qnap QNAP HS-453DX-8G

Does anyone have the experience using roon server on the Qnap QNAP HS-453DX?
If you what are you thought in term of sound quality and performance?
I am not considering using any DSP function, would this Qnap deliver in term of sound quality?

thank you

In an Asian forum people raved about it. Note that its quad core Celeron is below Roon Labs recommendation of i3.

Here’s a google translation of a Taiwan review of it running Roon:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Freview.u-audio.com.tw%2Freviewdetail.asp%3Freviewid%3D1599

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Hi Mickele,

I have exactly this NAS with 2 TB SSD M.2 & 2x4TB HDD. The NAS is a great gear and because of the missing fan a good companion.

However I had the Roon Core installed and it works fine (DSP was switched off) but only if you do not have too much other processes running. I am using qsirch to index my Files and and have some other tools in the background running.

Result: the cpu goes up to +90% and the os is slowing the cpu down to avoid overheating. I am pretty sure that the usage of DSP is not a go idea after my experience.

Do not get me wrong, it works, but the machine is on the edge and this does not give me a good feeling, because I store important stuff on it and I don’t want to blow it up due to overheating. Having a cpu degraded to 0,8 MHZ isn’t good either.

As a result bought a nucleus plus with ssd and use the NAS as backup for my Files, as download station and multimedia station for pictures and videos. The nucleus plus is doing fine with DSP for sometimes three endpoints.

Kind regards
Tom

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Hello Peter,

Thank you for the link and clarification.

Hello Tom,

It is more clear for me now.
I will stick with my current server, use the NAS for plex and my music storage and link it to a linear power supply if that helps in any way.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Mickele

Hi Mickele,

an upgrade for the power supply is for various reasons always a good choice!

Regards and have fun
Tom

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Hi Mickele, I am evaluating options for a Roon Server with internal storage (1-2 TB). I was determined to go for Nucleus (or N+) but then yesterday realized that it does not currently support incremental backups for internally stored content - this has put me off and I am looking at other options like SGC or Innuos. However, from your post it appears that you are able to backup or sync the Nucleus internal stored content with your NAS (I have a small older QNAP which does not support Roon core but is great in terms of syncing content with my laptop and doing backups). How do you “link” the Nucleus to the QNAP (meaning: is the Nucleus “slave” to the QNAP or you manage to backup the Nucleus content to QNAP, and using which tool?) - Many thanks in advance, Greg

Hello DrPro,

I do not have a Nucleux, I am using a custom made server based on a stripped Arch Linux, that took me about a year to build and configure.
As for backup, it depends on your NAS and their are many ways to achieve that.

  1. share your data folder on your music server and map it in your NAS (so you can back it up or sync it on the NAS)
  2. do the opposite, map your NAS on your music server and backup on your server, depending on the server you are using.
    In brief, you need to share one of the two sides.
    If you can install application on your NAS from the QNAP app store, their are many backup and sync options: https://www.qnap.com/en/app_center/
    good luck

Hi DrPro,

Qnap offers a native backup app (Mac or Windows) that can be used to backup the N+ to the nas. However I use Chronosync on my Mac to sync my files from the N+ to a q259 and a hs-453dx-8gb.

Regards
Thomas

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Unable to make Roon work on QNAP HS-453DX 8GB

After the Roon optimization for Linux builds the RAM and CPU usage should be less - so this should make this model even more interesting.

I run Roon on this device without any problems. CPU load pretty low temperature also ok. My configuration is with a 2x Crucial Laptop Memory 8 GB DDR4-2400, SO-DIMM 260 pin and 2x Samsung 860 EVO 1000 GB, M.2 2280 as Cache acceleration.

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What QNAP are you running?

As noted in the title HS-453DX(-16G) :wink:

Sorry what firmware version I was intending to ask.

Most recent one 5.0.0.2055
Now just trying to figure out if Roon might also be ported to ARM driven CPU’s, looks like a year ago it was not supported

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What are your experiences running ROON core on the HS-453DX-8G ?

Hi Markus,

I installed the roon core on the same NAS. The roon software runs on an M2 SSD partition. Basically, this works well, but only as long as not too many other services run in parallel. Then there is a high CPU load and increasing heat development. Then the CPU clock is reduced by the NAS. Since I constantly use the NAS, I then decided on a stand-alone solution with a Nucleus+.

Ah ok. Got the same situation with a M.2 SSD for ROON core and database. I disable all other services to focus on ROON - so even with a convolution filter / DSP the CPU usage is just 1-2 %

When I decide to run KODI/ Plex or some other stuff I enable & disable it manually.

How much of a difference in sound quality brought the change to Nucleus?

Concerning the SQ, I wouldn’t use the word spectacular :wink:
I run at home a closed Linn systems (living room Klimax System Hub and Klimax 350E Katalyst - home office: Linn ASH, ExactBox-I and Isobarik) all hard wired with CAT6.

The biggest change was - no hassle any longer. The Nucleus+ runs silently and without any hiccups since 2 years now (I had some rebuilds of my library, caused by unexpected power outage).

Kind regards
Tom