I plan to purchase a Synology NAS for running Roon, Plex and performing various local and cloud backup tasks. I plan to stream music to a Chord Poly/Mojo endpoint when available. I also take advantage of the DSP upsampling and EQ features in Roon.
I am considering the Synology DS418Play or DS918+. Which would be better?
Thank you
Roon’s minimum suggested specs for CPU is an i3. Both those units are Celeron’s. You should review Roon’s FAQ which discusses a NAS’s suggested specifications.
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Server_on_NAS
Here is a link to one suggested NAS:
Thank you!
I am long time Synology user and very comfortable with their products for NAS purposes but it seems it is not ideal for Roon.
I currently run Roon on an iMac 5k but may move it to Alienware Alpha i5 that I only use for Zwift or I may look at Intel NUC-Rock.
I just picked up a DS918+ (64bit Celeron).
While I don’t use DSP with my Hugo2, I tested Roon’s up-sampling PCM>DSD256 via DoP and I get a processing rate of 2.3x. So it’s quite capable and quite safe. All the other PCM based DSP I tried (EQ, volume levelling etc etc) are much less taxing.
That all changes if you’re using DSP to multiple zones at the same time though. I was only testing DSP to a single zone.
It works tremendously well for me and I kill two birds with one stone (networked storage and Roon Server).
I have RoonServer (and other installed apps) installed on a 256gb Samsung Evo Pro SSD.
Thank you
Your setup is nearly identical to the one I was hoping to create. I have an older Synology NAS DS1511+ (not running Roon) and planned to upgrade to a DS918Play or DS918+ hoping to add Roon.
I may go with the DS918+ and try Roon and if it does not work for me, I’ll pursue the Nuc / Rock option.
That was my plan also. Perhaps future updates of RoonServer will need more horse-power and then I can just use the NAS for storage and get a NUC for Roon Core.
But for now, the 918+ is more than capable, especially if playing to a single zone. No rush and no need for me to add another computer for no good reason (yet).
I was wondering if you were still using Roon on your DS918+ or similar NAS. I plan to upgrade my NAS (coming from a 6 years old DS213) to a DS918+ or DS718+ (with a RAM upgrade) and run Roon Core on it. They will cost about the same, but the DS918+ has 4GB RAM built in and has 4 bays instead of four.
I actually ended up going in a different direction. I am running Roon from an Alienware Alpha. I store all my music on a Synology DS518 Play which is connected to the Alpha on my network. This is working great!
Sorry I couldnt be more helpful.
Thanks @MJP, I am a bit anxious to use a Synology NAS for Roon Core even though it’s a quad core. Why did you make the decision to use a NAS for storage and the Alpha for Roon Core? I want to have the system available to me any time (when using my iPad for example) instead of booting up another machine. That’s why I think a NAS would be the better option. I won’t be using much multi-room stuff either.
Like you, I was anxious about running the Roon core on the Synology NAS. I already owned the Alpha and was using it infrequently (only as a platform for running Zwift, a virtual bicycle trainer). The Alpha is always on and handles Roon well so it provides the experience I was looking for.