Why is Roon so resource hungry? And is Roon development hamstrung...?

Roon Software Discussion
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Why is Roon so resource hungry? And is Roon development hamstrung due to the fact it markets & sells its own hardware?

I assume the first part of my question has been spoken about over the years, but I don’t really understand what it is about Roon that makes it so resource hungry, other than its need to link information from outside sources. (Excuse my ignorance).

However, what I do not think has never been spoken about is whether Roon has now hamstrung itself in terms of future developments/feature requests as it must keep within the specs of the hardware it sells?

Thanks

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What do you mean by resource hungry?
This NUC with memory and storage costs $409.
Roon could probably run on much less hardware, I run on a three year old equivalent, except Intel doesn’t make anything smaller and cheaper.

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Btw, that machine includes Windows, but Roon provides an operating system that is optimized for music, more efficient, and its free.

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I don’t think it is particularly resource hungry at all, unless perhaps you are doing a lot of heavy duty DSP. It does a lot of network chattering, which is probably why some people have issues because of sub-par network infrastructure/setup/internet provision.

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Roon runs well for me on a Nucleus that is far from a power house computer. Where Roon does require significant resources, I believe, is a robust network. That’s because Roon is moving significant amounts of data from your router to your core, back to your router, then to your end-points as well as to and from your control device(s) (visuals mostly). If you’re using a NAS to store music, it’s also moving that acoss your network if not connected directly. At least, this is my understanding of how it works.

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I find it extremely resource hungry on my Intel i7 (7th gen) laptop. I don’t use any streaming services, but have almost 6000 albums. It is forever doing ‘background audio analysis tasks’ & consequently skips tracks regularly.

Yup, we’ve had a thread about tracks skipping, where quite a number of people expressed their frustration about it & suggested perhaps ‘pause’ was a better option.

Thanks Jim for your explanation in easy to understand terms. I may try whilst on holidays connecting my laptop directly, rather than running it wirelessly.

Appreciated. :sunglasses:

@Rockhound

Perhaps that’s an issue at my end also (thanks Rock), as I do find Roon to be a heavy resource user - maybe that’s due to my large collection of files on my NAS?

@AndersVinberg
Unfortunately, those prices do not equate to the cost of similar out here in Ausland. However, given the large number of threads relating to software issues and the power that is required to run Roon seamlessly, esp with large collection (e.g. Roon Nucleus+ $4200+ AUS), no doubt we all have different experiences.

For all those that have no issues, there are likely those that do. :smile:

***Just for the record and it’s neither here nor there as Roon is Roon and not other software, I’ve never before found that streaming my music as I do, has ever been anything other than seamless.

I am likely going to buy (today/tomorrow) a new i7 laptop (10th gen) that I’ve had my eye on and either run Roon exclusively on that or perhaps keep that for myself & run Roon only on this.

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With a larger library, depending on the specs of your NAS and your network, you might be better to have an external disk (SSD if possible) connected directly to your Core.

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I could never get Roon to work acceptably to me trying to run the Roon core on my Dell XPS 15 i7 with 32 GB RAM and 1TB SSD using WIFI. That was streaming from Tidal with only a handful of albums of my own music. Since getting the Nucleus and running ethernet to my Nucleus and Oppo 203 end-point, it’s been perfect.

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I bought my NAS well before Roon, which was an upgrade from using external HDD storage, partly due to RAID backup, but also for the ability to be somewhat minimalist and stream wirelessly.

I guess I only have an entry level NAS & an upgrade may provide better speed for Roon to do its thing.

External SSD drives plus backups of ~6TB would cost an arm and a leg out here, if there is even such a thing.

Oh wait…I’ve just done a quick search…wow prices have dropped significantly since I last looked perhaps a year back.

2TB (portable ~ AUS $1200)

Lots of food for thought here…thanks!

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You can use your existing NAS for backup.

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Wow Jim…I do recall you moved from your laptop to the Nucleus. That’s some laptop you were running…

Looking at a Dell myself (end of financial year sales) with similar specs, but half that RAM. Interesting you still had some issues…Hmmmm…

With sales likely ending tomorrow, I’d like to make some sort of decision.

Note:
I don’t want to move away from title of this thread for fear mods will either move, split, delete or transfer to PM. Thanks

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Is it? My Core runs on Ubuntu Server, NUC7i5DNHE, 8GB main memory, 120GB M.2 SSD, 2TB USB SSD. Here is it playing 88.2/24 from Qobuz:

Screen Shot 2020-06-28 at 7.13.17 PM
Screen Shot 2020-06-28 at 7.13.17 PM1814×1158 164 KB

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Might have been more a function of using WIFI. However, it is my general purpose computer and does other stuff. My recommendation to anyone would be a dedicated Nucleus or NUC, ethernet for the core, music on a internal SSD, backup to a USB HDD.

Before I get flamed, this is my recommendation. Others can and will disagree and have success with other setup’s.

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@Fernando_Pereira

Sorry…don’t think I replied specifically (rather generally) to you, so edit to include @

Brian Luczkiewicz
Roon Labs: CTO

April 2015

If you’re thinking about buying new PC or Mac hardware, consider the following:

  • Is the hardware going to be shared with other resource-intensive applications?
  • How much music do you have? Managing 20,000 albums is way more demanding than managing 2,000.
  • Are you going to be browsing from this device, or using it headless?
  • How long do you intend to keep using this hardware before upgrading?
    With a small 1500 album library and a headless use case on a dedicated device, a very modest piece of hardware will run Roon really well.
    If you’re in the middle, say 3,000-5,000 albums, something similarly midrange–on par with the current (Apr 2015) mid-range Mac-Mini (Core i5, 2.x Ghz, SSD) will give a great experience.If you’ve got a 4k monitor and 20,000 albums, look for a big scary Core i7 with plenty of ram, an SSD, and discrete graphics.Most people will fall somewhere between those extremes. Not everyone cares as much as we do about “perfect” performance either. That makes it really hard to talk about what “suggested hardware” should be to everyone at once, but it should give you some idea of what we consider “extreme” and where you fall.

Another thing to keep in mind: Roon is not static. It will receive software updates over time, and as always, we’re going to continue pushing the functionality forward as hardware improves. Buying something that’s just barely sufficient today is a recipe for a sub-par experience in a year. Likewise, the hardware we’ll be recommending six months from now (April 10, 2015) will be six months better than what we’re recommending today.

@Fernando_Pereira
Given the above information is 5 years old your current set would not meet the demands of my local library & what I require from Roon. However, I’m pleased to hear it works just fine for your Qobuz streaming.

Yup, I think it is!

Not saying that is good or bad; it’s just I’d call Roon as a single piece of software resource hungry.

Thanks.

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I also stream from my local collection, around 1900 albums, 23k tracks. Roon’s object-oriented database is relatively demanding, but it never pushes my NUC. If I had 10x more albums, I’d use a beefier core, but honestly I can’t keep up with my local collection + Qobuz (added 228 albums in the last 6 months, can’t even figure out how I managed to listen to them all :grimacing:). In any case, the cost of the core server is trivial compared with the cost of all the audio gear it supports with in my setup.

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Nostro, do you use your laptop as a Roon core and player?

FWIW, I had a Dell XPS 8910 desktop which I used as my Roon core and player. The pc and a NAS unit, housing over 200,000 files were directly connected to my router. And like Jim_F, I opted for a Nucleus and an Amazon Fire tablet because my pc was pretty useless when playing music using Roon.

When I sent my Nucleus off for repairs this week, I was not looking forward to using my desktop again to play music via Roon. Reluctantly, I gave it another shot and again I experienced the same resource consumption as before.

So I tried loading the Roon core on my desktop and using the tablet I had purchased for the Nucleus as the player. And surprisingly, I discovered that separating the two freed up a lot of resources on my pc, once the Roon core was fully loaded. Thus I am now able to listen to music via Roon and still use my pc to browse and perform other functions like I normally do when Roon is not loaded on it.

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Brian posted about using a NAS for music storage here:

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This and a NAS is the worst combination for a slow roon setup, never run a core system wirelessly especially to a NAS based music library. The NAS alone is typically fine LAN connected to the core - I run my library on a NAS with over 250K tracks but on Gigabit LAN.

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@andybob
@wizardofoz
@jb76
@Fernando_Pereira

Thanks guys - I really didn’t want this thread to be about me per se. Nonetheless, happy to see the input and possible reasons why I, in particular, find Roon resource hungry. Either way - the requirements tell me that this software is resource hungry - perhaps we all have different definitions of resource hungry. (Nope - let’s not go down that path :shushing_face:).

Haha - so true, but we still don’t lament our spending on all of our audio gear…that’s the fun part :rofl:

Ya JB76, one of my very first days as a Roon user I came on the forum and heard from Jim about his decision to ditch his laptop and move to Nucleus. And since that time never looking back…So, I knew early on my set up was far from ideal and I’d have to make some sort of decision as to what would work best for my needs. Suffice to say ~AUS $4200 Nucleus+ (giving me room to grow) didn’t seem like it was worth it. By contrast Nucleus (approx AUS $2000), whilst cost-effective, gives me little room to move.

All the DIY stuff Rock NUC Nook, Crook or by Hook does my head in. Also, I live regionally these days, so going into a store and asking for all the parts isn’t an option, I’d have to buy online. I do live in a largish regional centre, but really specialist stores don’t exist, more those large electrical/computer chain type stores. So, that’s sort of out.

All of which got me thinking the past while I’d buy a new laptop for Roon.

Not so sure anymore about that idea. Happy to keep my $2000+ until I work out what is really going to work for me based on all the comments & suggestions above.

Thank you Andy I have now read that article & I think that’s exactly what Roon does all too often here. It scans searching for new files (even when there aren’t any) & this often causes the hardware issue and tracks skipping.

Okay Wizard…seems I have made all the mistakes a non computer expert might make without knowing any better. Oh well…traps for young players or just noobs!!! :smile:

Perhaps, I’ll call up an audio dealer now and enquire about a Nucleus. I suppose that’s roughly the same price (for me) as the laptop I was looking at. Whilst likely not a long term solution, if I connected things up (eish ugly blue cables), it should keep me going for a bit.

As per the second part of my question:
Are there any thoughts on the current upgradability of Roon and the need it must keep within spec of the hardware it sells (aka Nucleus)?

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even a Nucleus is well above the minimum recommended spec you need for Roon.

BUT minimum spec is minimum usage ability too. you don’t go and buy a 1" paint brush to paint a house - but it could do the job eventually