WTB: NUC with ROCK installed

Sales and Trades
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Dear hobbysts,

I am on the market for a NUC with ROCK installed and running. Due to my limited IT skills, I will skip the DIY way to build up a Intel-based Roon core.

The last years I have been running happily Roon from laptop. But it runs hot and I am concerned about how sustainable is that way of playing. On top, I plan to attach some heavy storage (NAS or portable hard disk) to have access to my music collection, and I am hoping a 24/7 running NUC/Rock can be wirelessly accessible from all streaming endpoints across my house. (I am right?). Collection is mainly DSD and 24 or 16 bit FLAC files.

If all of the above is correct, I am looking for purchasing a NUC from any of you guys that may be in a position to sell. Perhaps you are upgrading to Nucleus, Ubuntu, etc.

I really appreciate any comment or correction, and of course any NUC offering!
Thank you.

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What you describe makes sense. An internal ssd for media will save you having two boxes.

Generally a directly attached disk (internal or usb) will be faster than nas.

I did something similar and have been delighted. Sadly I don’t have one to sell.

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Hi GregD, thank you for your quick response. Appreciated.
Best regards.

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Rock does not enable wireless on Gen 8 and later NUCs.

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Hi Rugby, Many thanks. If I understand you well, I need to buy a NUC of the 7 series or earlier, right?

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Yes, Gen 7 actually. However, the core should never be connected wirelessly, imho.

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Hi, I am from the Netherlands and selling my Roon Rock server, NUC based with a silent Akasa case. Looks good also and with a USB DAC it also can be used as a player/endpoint. Ready to go!

Pictures Dutch Marktplaats: ≥ Roon Rock music server inclusief Roon Endpoint — Converters — Marktplaats

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Hi, I should be freeing up a spare NUC/ROCK server.

It is a 2015 NUC5i3MYBE with 8GB RAM and a SATA 240GB SSD.
The NUC5 range did not include WiFi or Bluetooth, and only supports M.2 SATA SSD which provides the same performance as a SATA SSD.
It is a 15W TPW and with a Gen5 i3 CPU there is no fan usage during normal usage modes, or rather I have never heard it, even during library rebuilds and full Library analysis using all 4 core threads.

I have been using this NUC model since ROCK was released, without issue, with a library of 7K albums and 96K tracks of all format types (PCM, DSD, MQA, ALAC, AAC, MP3) at every possible resolution.
I tend to use Roon within only a single endpoint zone at any time - ‘downstairs’ with a SonoreUPnP bridge to my Naim NDS Network player, or ‘upstairs’ with a number of Chromecast Audio devices in a Chromecast group.

Effectively an entry-level ROCK server specification for a smallish library (up-to 100k - 150k tracks) with up-to 4 endpoints (dual core CPU provides 4 threads, and a Roon Endpoint uses a single thread for each endpoint). My 96K track library uses just 4% of the 240GB internal SSD with the latest 1.8 Builds.
I have tested this type of NUC with plenty of DSP - EQ convolution filters, DSD downsampling to DSD64, downsampling of anything above PCM 24/192 and 1st unfold of any MQA and processing to the max 24/96 for the 1st unfold. And literally everything played within 4 zones playing simultaneously without the processing measure hitting less than 2x.
So it should provide support for what most Roon users need - CD, HiRes PCM, DSD and MQA playback.

Given the age of this NUC model, happy to pass on for €120/£100, and happy to ship within EU & UK on receipt of funds & shipping costs.
A UK sale will need to cover post-Brexit import duties and VAT given they are now a 3rd country.

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2 posts were split to a new topic: WTB: Inexpensive, quiet NUC to run Roon

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I don’t have anything used to sell, but I would happily sell a new NUC with Rock installed, or I can install Rock on your NUC if sent to me. I am in the US

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