WTB: Inexpensive, quiet NUC to run Roon Core

Sales and Trades
27

Older post, but just for info.

I use one of these
MeLE Quieter2Q Fanless Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125 8GB DDR4 128GB eMMC Mini Computer with Windows 11 Pro, Micro Desktop PC Supports 4K Dual-Screen Output, Dual WIFI, Gigabit Ethernet, BT4.2 https://amzn.eu/d/2VOcXeA

I rarely see processing speeds go less than 10.0x on Roon. I’d say this is the minimum spec you’d get away with.

I got mine for less that £200 with 8gb RAM. Dropped in a
Hypertec FirestormLite 256GB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen 3x4 SSD; M keyed https://amzn.eu/d/55KuFkR

The above is faster than the internal storage.

Took a while to set the bios. Installed Roon ROCK.

Plugged in this
AudioQuest - JitterBug FMJ USB Data & Power Noise Filter https://amzn.eu/d/ah1kTGN

And then this
AudioQuest DragonFly DAC USB Digital Audio Converter - Cobalt https://amzn.eu/d/2yM1JDC

Total cost
£500

I have used multiple devices as endpoints such as RPis with Volumio and Allo HATS and find the above used directly sounds good enough for my needs. I have and ATV setup on a TV with another ATV paired with 2 homepods and using the power of HDMI Arc can enjoy music in the bedroom.

28

That’s really interesting because I bought the previous model, J4000, 4GB RAM as an endpoint the other day and I really like it for form and function. I kind of wish I paid the few pounds extra for the model you have but it is actually remarkably snappy running Windows 11. I’m impressed you found a way to get ROCK on yours. I’ve just pulled mine out of my system to put Linux on it but if I can get ROCK to work that would be great. I have a 128gb stick in mine which is massive overkill just to run ROCK in passive mode but it was there just in case I couldn’t get an OS on the included storage.