I can’t decide where to leave my main install of Roon. I have two machines and while the sound quality and access are the same regardless I am noticing a few second lag running things, not on my desktop. My second machine is an i5 with 16GB of RAM And sitting in my basement. It’s a solid mid-range performer and it’s used primarily in my fitness area to run Zwift and houses the Plex install as well. My other machine is a bit of beast Alienware gaming PC with an i7 and when the server is there it provides an instant response … It’s possible that this system will be off sometimes as it can run a bit warm but so far I’m the only user as my family seems just fine in their lower-fi world (the horror).
I guess I’m basically answering my own question because convenience of access is a big deal. The flac library I have is actually connected to both machines in a separate instance regardless. I’ve thought of a NAS as well but that’s probably not something until later next year … though also curious about performance now that I have a multi-device PC system running.
I’m running Roon Server either way on the machines.
Not by comparison … I’ve got (according to Roon) 1162 albums in 14,968 tracks. Think the lag issue is actually my network as the machine can only connect over wifi or power over ethernet where it is currently located. I actually have GigE in the house and a rack in a closet which is totally usable for this machine, but then I lose access for the fitness purpose … I need a way to route the HDMI signal from there otherwise which is a pretty good throw and no real way to conceal it.
There is no definitive answer to your question @Jonathan_Greene. Both machines appear adequate, although the more powerful one seems quicker. It really depends on which you prefer to leave on more. You seem to have moving the Core between them under control, so you will work out which one is best for your circumstances.
I would raise a note of warning to those considering installing RoonServer on a NAS (you may be referring simply to storing music files on a NAS). The devs have always indicated that DSP functions are in Roon’s future. An installation of RoonServer that manages to work on a NAS now may well not be powerful enough to use future DSP functions.
Good point on the NAS. I was not thinking of it as storage but more as a storage plus server situation as I could put quite a bit of additional media (plex etc) there too.
OK I just seriously motivated and dig some digging in the equipment room / rack to identify and pair up things … it’s messy but no one will see it. Networking is now rock solid (no delays on controlling Roon) , wired and fast from the machine in the basement. I have a semi-decent video signal coming over too for my other needs, but will work that through tomorrow after some sleep.