Yes but if the fastest NUC you can get for ROCK is not fast enough for you (and NUCs are always mobile CPUs that can’t compete on pure horse power with the fastest desktops/servers), then what other options do you have
It will remove Windows on its own, though
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Looking at your past posts, you said that your library was just over 7,000 tracks - that’s small. I’m curious as to why you think that you need a more powerful ROCK/NUC to handle that…
Fair point - but what would be a solution than? It will only be used for Rock.
THX
Torben
@Torben_Rick if this is correct, CPU power is NOT your problem. I have a 10i5 with ROCK and it’s plenty fast for the 50K tracks that I have. (Edit: typically one zone with convolution filters and volume leveling, no upsampling, with 24/192 material my speed indicator sits at about 54x)
Anything that accesses the cloud, e.g. search, has variable speed but it’s not caused by the NUC
The problem is that I use:
- Roon sample rate conversion (DSD 128)
- DSP (Digital Signal Processing) convolution filters with crosstalk (Home Audio Fidelity)
- Volume levelling
When playing pure DSD 128:
This is a 192:
Torben
DSD with convolution surely is your problem 
This is inherently CPU intensive and, in this case, more CPU power is in fact your solution.
Or add an additional PC and HQ Player. As you probably also know, HQP aficionados often have super high powered PCs, often with high-performance graphics cards for offloading the calculations.
@Suedkiez - THX
Yes I need more CPU power.
HQ Player is not an option due to my Linn - they don’t work to getter.
THX
Torben
A processing speed 5.5 is more than enough.
What symptoms make you believe your need more CPU.
Edit: Never mind, I didn’t see the .8.
DSD 128 is below 1
Torben
Yeah, I edited my post. Our posts crossed in the ether. 
You need to have appropriate convolution filters generated for all applicable sample rates. Otherwise, Roon has to sample rate convert the audio, filters, or both.
AJ
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DSD128 is 5.6448 MHz (or 5644.8 kHz), which is 14-16x your closest sample rate filters. That means Roon has to use CPU cycles to sample rate convert your filters on the fly. Or you need to disable Native DSD Processing.
AJ
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THX AJ - Is it possible for make DSD64 and DSD128 filter like the above?
THX for your comments.
Torben
I got the similar problem. Mine is 16G RAM i5 NUC with ROCK, only convolution dsp is applied for digital room correction. It runs smoothly, except dsd playback, just like your case.
Initially I was hoping a more powerfully nuc. Eventually I just let ROON process and output DSD in pcm format (not DOP), as my R2R ladder dac converts all dsd into pcm internally.
Then the processing speed of dsd playback doesn’t bother me anymore.
I’m using an old NUC and it’s still snappy and supports multiple streams.
Bean Canyon 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5-8259U quad-core / 8gb RAM
ROCK installs on the OS SSD (the card type M.2) and takes up the whole disc , even though there is space left after the install it will be unavailable for any further use, hence it will wipe the Windows install… Hence you need the smallest SSD (ie lowest cost) you can get, these days that’s probably 256 Gb any bigger is a waste.
This is my 256 Gb with a 140k tracks, loads of empty space !!
The alternative is to install Roon Server Version or the Roon GUI version running under Windows. That allows you to run other software on the NUC BUT you lose the “self maintenance” aspect of ROCK, the Windows route you need to keep up to speed on Windows Updates and all that goes with that.
I would guess most NUC users here go the dedicated ROCK route. The nice part is you can initially opt for the Windows route , if it doesn’t suit just install ROCK over it and you still have a windows license if you need it .
Windows runs Roon fine, I ran it on my big noisy desktop for 5 years without a blip, I went the NUC route for simplicity
For a library of 5,000 albums see NUC 8th Gen still the best option? and best retailers? - #33 by simon_pepper
I was still under 7,000 albums and running on a NUC5i3 without problems, AND it was able to run DSP convolution filters on multiple zones in parallel.
Presently running with 7,500 (100k tracks) on a NUC7i7DN, which barely breaks a sweat, and I do run DSP EQ Convolution filters as well.
ROCK uses a single thread within the NUC’s CPU, so it is this performance that needs to be looked at.
The biggest, latest i7 CPU machine may not be always the best option.
