I’d like to offer my take as well, so those reading this thread later can have an alternate view. This relates specifically to running Rock on an Intel NUC.
(Sorry, Joppe - this is not related to maximizing sound quality of Roon.)
RAM usage for Roon is primarily driven by number of tracks. 8GB will support around 300-500,000 tracks, depending on metadata usage. Over that and you’re in rarified territory; 16GB will get you closer to 1 million tracks.
Roon is an extremely light application and is purposefully designed to be so. It is not designed to use RAM just because it’s there and it simply crashes if memory is not sufficient for the tracks it is attempting to work with.
So, 8GB RAM is more than sufficient for the significant majority of cases. (Roon themselves suggest 4-8GB.)
Single-core CPU performance is frequently cited as a key metric for Roon. CPU core requirements go up as you increase the number of concurrent playback zones and add filters/DSP. (I believe one core is spun up initially per zone and processing stress increases with application of filters/DSP.)
The current crop of 10th gen CPUs in Intel NUCs appear to be focused on increased compute per watt relative to prior generations (15W TDP across the board) and the number of cores increase (2, 4, 6) as you go up the range. Single-core performance does not seem to be that, if any, different between a current i3, i5 or i7.
So, unless you have significant multiple, concurrent zone needs (over four?)*, the current i3 is more than capable for most needs.
Don’t take my word for it, though. @simon.pepper (plus others) benchmarked his 5th gen i3 over on the Roon forums (look for “List Your NUC Capabilities”, for those interested). Key takeaway? It more than held its own against later gen i3, i5 and i7 systems.
I don’t personally subscribe to the idea of buying headroom for “possible future needs” when it comes to Rock on a NUC, given the current design strategy.
My personal choice is an i3 with 8GB RAM - I run two zones at most and do not have 300k tracks. The savings against an i5 with 16GB paid for a year of Roon.
*Roon’s own Nucleus specs, based on an i3, suggest support for up to 6 zones.