I have an Asustor as5202t with two 4TB SATA drives, Raid1, with no SSD. I bought this before finding out about Roon. I use it as a Time Machine backup (running at 3am only) and as a music file store. I installed the Roon Server on the as5202t to see how it would do, knowing it wasn’t the optimal configuration. It mostly does fine, but there’s some stuttering when playing to multiple Airplay 2 devices (3 Sonos speakers and one WiiM Pro.) I don’t anticipate using volume leveling or some of the other advanced Roon features but…you never know. I have about 700 CDs, most of which have not been digitized yet, in FLAC format.
Obviously I’ll continue to use the Asustor as the music file store, but my question is which of the three platforms would work OK, at least for the next three years.
- Roon Server remains on as5202t, move database to USB 3-connected SSD drive. (Is this even recommended?)
- Roon Server and database installed on dedicated laptop:
- ASUS Q535UD (AKA Zenbook Flip 15 UX561UD)
- Intel 8th gen i7-8550U
- 16GB RAM (non-upgradeable)
- 256GB SSD
- USB-C Thunderbolt 3.0 port
- USB-C to 2.5gbe adapter connected to 2.5gbe switch
- ASUS NUC 13 Pro Tall Barebone (ROCK configuration) with purchased 16GB ram kit and 500GB PCIe card - about $375.
Obviously, I’d like to avoid the extra cost unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Thoughts? Recommendations? TIA!