posted similar to this before, but relevant - what is the sweet spot for a NUC build for Roon?
Obviously you can max out the spend and get a NUC10i7 with loads of RAM and SSD space, but since it can run on a NUC5i3, then value for money also comes into it…
Long story short - a good level system which should offer decent UI power (for slick browsing) and rapid database access, and yet still be somewhat futureproof, at a decent price: 10i5.
The series 10 generation is not much more than the earlier series. The i3 is adequately powerful but many people report faster GUI responses with an i5 and above - but the i7 is not going to be necessary. Above generation 8 you can modify the bios to turn off the fan so have a quiet PC.
16GB RAM - 8 GB is probably enough but it’s not too much more for 16GB. 256GB Samsung m.2 SSD drive - the 256 is slight faster than the 128 because the chips are laid out slightly differently.
overall, slightly more than a base spec machine, but if you want to built it once and have it running for years, for it to be snappy and cope of upgrades/changes as Roon evolves, and cope easily as your music tastes diversify, this is a good balance. YMMV…
At the moment Im connected direct to my M Scaler. Sort of… I made an adapted usb cable that takes a power feed from a power bank and the data cable (usb3) only takes data from the NUC. So, not sure if this will be of benefit or not
Have you tried connecting directly by any chance?
Edit… I was considering a UltraRendu at one point. I guess this needs to be decided first then.
@xcentric 8gb Ram, 256gb PCIe and a NUC7i5 would be more than enough. The i5 gives a bit more headroom if you plan to do multi room or DSP. You’re right about the 256 being faster and a better option rather than the 128gb etc. The 7th get is a good bang for buck point at the moment.
Gotya. The MScaler’s USB is galvanically isolated and it reclocks data coming in so cleans up USB feeds a lot but a LPS may help but… need to make up my mind on whether to add an UltraRendu to the system first I think!
Already sorted that by way of a large power bank. Increases the resistance and stops any noise flowing from the MScaler to the TT2. Improved soundstage depth and removed the small amount of high end glare the scaler can produce internally.
I’ve got a Uptone LPS 1.2 on route to try out to see how it compares. It also keeps the MScaler detached from the mains which should do the same as the Power Bank but with more stable voltage.
I felt similar to what you wrote. An i3 with 8 GB and 64 GB database SSD is most likely sufficient if you don’t do a lot of DSP and the library is not super huge - also compare the specs on the Roon knowledge base for Rock building.
However, in the context of a Naim system the costs are negligible, so I also went with 10i5 and 16 GB. And getting 64 and even 128 disks is more difficult, so 256 it was.
Be aware that an 8th gen gives you more options for LPS use than the requirements of the 10th gen, if you are into this kind of thing
Have that option in the NUC5i3 too.
However, have never heard the fan on, every during the benchmark testing I undertook, or when I have added a chunk of new material into my Library, and it has to scan it, identify metadata and sample them for DR measurement using all 4 cores.
