What is the max RAM size can Nucleus One be upgraded to ?
The 4GB RAM comes with the device is having a speed of 3200. What is the highest speed recommended ?
I am not sure the RAM on the Nuclues One can be upgraded. I think 4gb is it 
Based on images on the internet the RAM slot, if one is present, would require the whole board being completely out of the casing.
Edit: I stand corrected. You can upgrade the RAM.
Maybe @daniel can advise further when he picks this up next week
According to google:
The Roon Nucleus One can be upgraded to a maximum of 32GB of RAM. It’s recommended to upgrade to 16 or 32 GB to improve performance.
I have seen one or two mentions of better performance with 32 GB. They mentioned that accessing the server from an Iphone.seemed smoother? I would take this with a grain of salt as I don’t know what the rest of their system looks like (network speed, congestion, DSP usage, etc.). YMMV
I would say (from a lot of reading on the forums and reviews) that 16GB (2X8GB memory cards) would be plenty. The key is to use two memory cards so that the bus runs in dual channel mode vs single channel mode.
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You only need to upgrade RAM on a Nucleus device or Rock if you experience freezing/crashes.
I would however upgrade to 16gb (2x8gb) if I were an owner of a nucleus one after receiving it. 4gb won’t get you far before crashes IMHO.
As for MHz. If it’s 3200, stick with that.
Thanks all for the good advices.
I’ll go with 32GB, 3200.
Unlike the NUC8 I am playing with Rock, there is only ONE RAM slot in the Nucleus One, perhaps that’s why it is called ONE.
I’ll report back the result after upgrade.
Thanks again.
A post was split to a new topic: Replacement memory module for Nucleus One
Based on the CPU possibly being something similar to a N100 I’d say 32gb RAM is a bit wasted. Unless your library is close to of bigger than the recommended library size, I’d go for 16gb.
The One specs suggest it’s good for 10k albums/100k tracks with some active DSP enabled. Boosting the RAM won’t help in this regard. It’s CPU performance that matters.
From experience a 124k track library, occasionally jumped to 5 to 6 gb RAM consumption (DietPi). On a N100 CPU I saw good enough performance for some DSP. This computer had 8gb RAM and never crashed.
My current music server is an i5-8500T with 16gb RAM. in the past running Roon with the same sized library as above it consumed the same amount of RAM but achieved better DSP performance and allowed me to run more DSP.
Google and these people are wrong. If it does not crash, more RAM is NOT needed. (There is the dual channel thing on motherboards that support it, but these are small percentages in theoretical performance. Anyway there is only one slot in the N1)
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Do as advised, and get 16 GB (8 GB would probably suffice). Any library that necessitates 32 GB, which there are few, would not run with the Nucleus One processor.
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I’m using one of these as my Roon Server running on ROCK. It has 12 gb soldered on the mainboard and a 12th gen Intel N97 CPU. I reckon it is similar to the CPU aboard the Nucleus One.
It handles my 3 endpoints with volume leveling and my iPhone through Roon ARC.
Current library size (local, Qobuz and I’ve just readded Tidal). It still is quite fluent in usage. I believe 16 gb of RAM in your Nucleus should be more than enough for what the system can handle library size wise.
Thank you ALL.
But it’s too late to take further suggestions from you guys because I was out and bought the 32GB RAM already.
It’s okay as the price difference between 16GB and 32GB is about USD10 only.
Truly, I don’t hear any difference in sound quality with the extra memory.
However, whether it’s placebo effect or not, I do feel the machine runs smoother especially when listing my 5000 something CDs in album views, and sorting customized playlists, etc.
That’s 100% worth the upgrade in my case.
Thank you very much to you all again.
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You got Kingston RAM, so you won’t 
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None would be expected
It is
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You will not experience any SQ improvements with increased ram. Also, all Linux systems provide swap capabilities. There is no reason for someone to take this out, it doesn’t hurt performance unless it gets real bad. Also, you can’t swap to memory! Memory is full and that’s why the system is swapping memory chunks out to hd or ssd.
Since rock took out all diagnostic commands, how does any user check to see if the system is swapping? 4G of memory is way too small for any server system especially for running Roon. 8G is also small too. 16G would be the least amount of ram I would get for any server and 32G would even provide more headroom for future increases of the music library.
I would never use rock because of the removal of system diagnostics, I sure wouldn’t touch it if they modified the OS to get rid of swap. I designed enterprise servers running large databases that some of the largest corporations would use and i would never think about getting rid of swap. These servers had hundreds of gigs of ram, over $100k of solid state storage, accessing more than million $$ SANs, and over $1M worth of software.
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By reading the two posts of the guy who built it that I posted above yours. It simply doesn’t, ever. We clarified this already weeks ago:
It makes it predictable.
That’s just utterly wrong. Obviously Nucleus works with 4GB for recommended library sizes or the forum would be full of such a problem. 16 suffices for nearly any library size you’d want to run on a NUC. In the unlikely event that it crashes, 32 might be necessary but that’s really pathological cases.
I.e., the opposite use case of ROCK.
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No, this is completely wrong, and poor advice. Read the docs. You can run Ubuntu Server on 1024 MB, and Roon OS is considerably lighter.
4 GB is good for 100,000 tracks.
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Swapping is disabled in ROCK.
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Moderator Clarification: RoonOS is not a Linux build.
[Whilst there are some similarities it should not be conflated with general purpose Linux builds. One important distinction is that RoonOS does not use swap space, thus adding more RAM does not improve performance. When RoonOS runs out of available RAM it crashes.
The information below whilst interesting is not related to RoonOS, however, it may aid readers in understanding the difference between RoonOS and general purpose Linux distros.]
4G ram is too low to run Linux efficiently. Can it be done, sure, you can run Linux on lower too. Ram is cheap just like commercial hdd and ssd. If you are talking about running linux on 4G of ram and disabling swapping, you can cause performance issues and shutdowns:
Disabling swap in Linux can be considered for various reasons, primarily when a system has ample RAM and the user wants to minimize the risk of system slowdowns or crashes due to out-of-memory (OOM) conditions. Some users also choose to disable swap to prevent potential performance issues when running specific applications or tasks.
Here’s a more detailed look at the reasons:
- Abundant RAM and Performance Concerns:
- Sufficient RAM:
If a system has enough RAM to handle all running processes and applications, disabling swap can potentially improve performance by reducing the overhead of disk-based swapping.
- Avoiding Swap Thrashing:
When a system is running low on RAM, it may start using swap space. However, if the system is heavily swapping (thrashing), it can lead to significant performance slowdowns as the system spends more time reading and writing data to the disk.
This following is basic Linux 101 stuff but not everyone knows this. Give Linux or any OS enough ram to do its job efficiently:
Ample RAM in Linux improves performance by allowing the system to handle more simultaneous processes, minimizing reliance on slower disk-based swap memory, and improving overall responsiveness. More RAM enables smoother multitasking, faster application launches, and reduced lag.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
- Reduced Swapping:
When RAM is scarce, the Linux kernel relies heavily on swap space (disk space used as virtual memory). Swap is significantly slower than RAM, leading to noticeable slowdowns. More RAM means less reliance on swap, resulting in faster access to data and improved responsiveness.
- Improved Multitasking:
A larger RAM capacity allows you to run more applications simultaneously without experiencing sluggish performance or resource limitations. This is especially beneficial for tasks like running multiple virtual machines, editing large files, or playing resource-intensive games.
- Faster Application Launch and Shutdown:
With ample RAM, the system can keep frequently used application data and code in memory, resulting in faster startup and shutdown times for those applications.
- Smoother User Experience:
A system with enough RAM can maintain a smoother, more responsive user experience, with reduced lag and delays when switching between applications or performing various tasks.
- Optimized File Caching:
Linux uses RAM to cache frequently accessed files, which can lead to faster loading times for websites, applications, and other files. With more RAM, the system can cache more files, further accelerating file access.
This is a discussion about Roon and a Nucleus, so generalising the discussion about Linux is moot.
Roon, when runs out of RAM will crash.
4gb is stated to be good up to 100k tracks. The math suggests 8gb will be good for 200k tracks etc.
General recommendation from users, current and old, suggests 16gb is an ideal starting point as the users library grows.
Increasing RAM to crazy amounts will not help here with Roon.
Faster RAM may see a benefit.
More RAM or faster RAM will not improve sound quality.
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