Hi folks. I’d also be interested in buying a cheap, quiet NUC to run Roon. I only use Roon for steaming. Ideally ROCK would be installed as, like the OP, I am not a computer savant. US based. Thanks.
Agreed, now split out to new topic.
Carl
As I understand it this isn’t allowed by Roon - the seller (any seller) isn’t licensed to sell a box with Roon installed. Including used equipment I think. Or has that changed (it may have done)?
Phil
Hi @Phil_Wright,
My understanding is that commercial retailers can not ship units with ROCK pre-installed, but they can have a script / menu that allows a user initiated download and installation of ROCK.
However, if a community member as a private seller had a used NUC with ROCK installed that they no longer had use for, then Roon would take a pragmatic approach.
thanks for the replies. Yes, I need to start a new thread.
Carl has already done that for you
that explains a lot! you can probably tell i’m a novice. Thanks, Carl.
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Maybe peruse eBay and USAudiomart as well?
I purchased a nuc cw ROCK already installed off eBay and it was a fair deal and worked right out of the box plug and play.
Good luck.
Hi Gavin, I can advise you on what Intel NUC to purchase, and walk you through how to load the ROCK software. Jerry
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When you google a question about roon read articles with help in link first they are baseline setup usage instructions. Part way down is hardware requirements, if you build your own. Take processor and memory recommendations and add to a search for “intel nuc i7 xyxz GHZ xy GB memory”. Would recommend a USB-C enclosure for your harddrive (ac powered) make sure NUC has a USB-C port 3.1 speed for USB.
Remember in purchase if you have a hard time with basics like creating a bootable USB and using it to boot
Might save money and your time, frustrations to purchase from Roon.
If you have built PC’s in past its a piece of cake.
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Probably depends also on requirements: I use a secondhand Asus Vivo PC VM42 with Celeron processor as NUC with Roon core installed from USB drive. Very cheap setup though still fast and flawless (now for ~ two years). But in this setup my actual music (1.5 Tb mainly flacs) is on a 14 year old QNAP NAS as coupled via a router, then streaming towards Linn… Really happy with the cheap NUC setup that works very well. So if you don’t need your music on the NUC as well you can probably use cheap NUC as well.
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Thanks everyone. I think I’ll do it myself. Question: if I want to use the nuc a) as Roon core; b) only to stream Qobuz; c) also as a streamer to a mytek Brooklyn plus dac. Any recommendations? Seems like running windows would be fine. Does one nuc serve as a better streamer than another, for example?
I don’t know if Roon has updated the NUC specs, but I would follow those and run ROCK. It’s as close to an appliance as you will get.
I’ve just bought cheap nuc8i3. Ropieee is very simple Linux distribution and to be honest it’s better to install Linux mint and Roon core than have 128GB disk almost empty.
Ropieee is the xtremely simple distro. No monitoring (cpu), no splitting nuc disc to system and data - system is extremely small and disks are 128GB+
About a year ago, I assembled a GEN8 i3, in a tall case, with 128GB M.2, 8GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD for a little over $450.
Unfortunately now, GEN8 and below NUCs are pretty hard to find.
It’s hard to find anything smaller than 128GB, but the cost is about $30. So, fair to waste space if it means using the simplest solution, i.e. ROCK.
Example core from eBay.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M92p refurbished.
i5, 120gb SSD, 4gb memory, Windows installed.
Less than £100 and there is a thread here about installing ROCK on it if you want to.
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thanks. Is that Lenovo unit very quiet?
They are designed to be on a workstation where you work so while they won’t be silent they will be suitably quiet.
And that is not a NUC. NUC is not a generic term for a miniature desktop computer. It is an Intel trademark. Next Unit of Computing.
AJ
I was hoovering the other day when the Trade Mark police kicked the door in and arrested me. I was actually using a Dyson! 