Which is the most cost/effective hardware solution to run Roon Server?

[franz159]

Thanks to DAR and Roon generosity (see here for details) I now have a 3 months Roon trial in front of me.

Believe it or not, I had already come to the conclusion this morning that it was time to give a try to Roon trial.

Initially I know I will install Roon Bridge on my Raspberry Pi3.

But now my question becomes, which is the most cost/effective hardware solution to run Roon Server?

In my initial thinking I have identified the following options:

1) Apple Mac Mini i5, 16Gb, 256Gb SSD (1099$)

2) Small Green Computer Sonic Transporter i5 (645$)

3) Intel NUC i5 (NUC6i5SYH+16Gb Ram+250Gb SSD) (583$)

Any other suggestion? Any hint would be more than welcome!

[gcoupe]

As I keep saying, these sorts of questions are far more like to receive traction over in the Roon Community forums. You could take a look at the long-running thread on this topic, for example. What you don't include in your question is any indication of the size of your music collection. That also has an influence on hardware choice. FWIW, I've gone with the Intel NUC approach.

[franz159]

As I keep saying, these sorts of questions are far more like to receive traction over in the Roon Community forums. You could take a look at the long-running thread on this topic, for example. What you don't include in your question is any indication of the size of your music collection. That also has an influence on hardware choice. FWIW, I've gone with the Intel NUC approach.

 

Music collection size? 45.000 files.

I can see it going to 100.000 ing 5/6 years or so.

[cjf]

3) Intel NUC i5 (NUC6i5SYH+16Gb Ram+250Gb SSD) (583$)

Any other suggestion? Any hint would be more than welcome![/font][/color]

 

I just bought the 5th GEN version of the NUC you have listed here last night. In doing some research it seems the 6th GEN models still have too many reliability issues so I went with the last model instead.

 

My use case will be for this NUC to serve as my new ROON Server Core box. I'll be installing Ubuntu 16.04LTS on it. Right now those duties are being handled by my primary desktop. I have no real complaints as it is today but I would rather have a music server I can leave running at all times tucked into a corner of my basement verses needing to power up my main desktop each time I want to listen to music.

 

I went with the following setup and expect it to be a little beast with plenty of horsepower for my usage:

 

Intel NUC NUC5i5RYH

SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 2280 256GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V5P256BW

HyperX Impact 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Laptop Memory Model HX316LS9IBK2/16

 

All in about $650 to my door.

[gcoupe]

I just bought the 5th GEN version of the NUC you have listed here last night. In doing some research it seems the 6th GEN models still have too many reliability issues so I went with the last model instead.

I think the "reliability issues" that you refer to was the slim chance that the power regulator could brick the NUC. This was fixed by a BIOS revision back in April. Don't think that there's any reason not to go for the 6th gen models now. Certainly the two that I have have been excellent.

[gcoupe]

Music collection size? 45.000 files.

I can see it going to 100.000 ing 5/6 years or so.

With that size, you'd be better off looking at an i7-based unit. From discussions in the Roon forums, large libraries (we're talking about 70,000 Albums here) also run better on Roon Server on Windows than on Mac OSX.

[cjf]

I think the "reliability issues" that you refer to was the slim chance that the power regulator could brick the NUC. This was fixed by a BIOS revision back in April. Don't think that there's any reason not to go for the 6th gen models now. Certainly the two that I have have been excellent.

 

Actually most of the complaints I was seeing on NewEgg from current GEN6 owners were related to driver issues. Obviously reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt but there were too many people saying the same thing so I chose to go the GEN5 route instead. Didn't see any complaints at all for that one.

 

Who knows, maybe i'll get my GEN5 and it will be a POS, but I hope not.

 

I guess no matter how you look at it either GEN i5 model will have more than enough resources on tap for audio purposes then will ever be needed for 99.99999% of the masses, including myself. If the ROON Server DB is placed on SSD this statement will be even more true no matter how big your library is.

 

I like overkill so I'm going 16GB RAM and PCI-E M.2 Disk to hold the DB

[baddog]

Just got my NUC a few days back. Intel NUC6i5SYH. Put in 16GB of memory (one probably would be fine with 8GB) and added both an M.2 drive (Samsung 850 EVO) and a regular SSD drive (Samsung 850 EVO). For your purposes assuming your music is elsewhere you would not need the second drive.

Using ethernet. Using Windows Pro 10. Have optimized the system as well (optional task for geeks). I am running it headless with RoonServer (you could of course run it with a monitor and Roon). Music stored either local on second drive or on NAS. Also using Tidal. I have ~31,000 local files, the system isn't even breaking a sweat.

 

I searched for best Black Friday/Cyber Monday bargains, got really good prices on both the 1TB M.2 drive and 2TB SSD drive.

 

No regrets, very very happy. Playback, searching, et al is fast.

Ooops! Saw your music collection size, definitely an i5 if not an i7.

My two cents.

 

My parts list:

 

Intel NUC6i5SYH

Kingston Technology Hypex Impact Memory (RAM)

Samsung 850 EVO M.2 Sata

 

The Samsung 950 Pro M.2 offerings are really fast, but overkill for my use and funds at the moment, but if you can stretch it, you certainly won't be sad. I had my eye on them, but decided to wait a bit longer.

[gcoupe]

If the ROON Server DB is placed on SSD this statement will be even more true no matter how big your library is.

Actually, Roon Labs states that use of an SSD to hold the Roon DB is practically a mandatory requirement. Spinning discs aren't fast enough...

[franz159]

With that size, you'd be better off looking at an i7-based unit. From discussions in the Roon forums, large libraries (we're talking about 70,000 Albums here) also run better on Roon Server on Windows than on Mac OSX.

45000 flac files translate in about 6000 albums....am I wrong?

[baddog]

45000 flac files translate in about 6000 albums....am I wrong?

 

Assuming 10 tracks to an album, ~ 4,500 albums.

Assuming 9 tracks to an album, ~ 5,000 albums.

 

I do concur with the suggestion to post on Roon forum to ascertain if i5 or i7 is more appropriate for your needs.

[gcoupe]

45000 flac files translate in about 6000 albums....am I wrong?

No. I was looking at the 100,000 file target you mentioned. I always think it's better to over-spec and future-proof, rather than scrape in and have to upgrade in a couple of years rather than four or five...

[wwaldmanfan]

45000 flac files translate in about 6000 albums....am I wrong?

 

What's an "album"? I have albums with 5-6 songs (Blind Faith, Animals by Pink Floyd) and compilations with 25 songs on a single CD. In terms of file size, I recently transcoded my library of 25,000 lossless AIFF tracks (roughly 1600 albums) to 16/44 level 8 FLAC, and it came out to just under 500gb.

[witchdoctor]

Thanks to DAR and Roon generosity (see here for details) I now have a 3 months Roon trial in front of me.

Believe it or not, I had already come to the conclusion this morning that it was time to give a try to Roon trial.

Initially I know I will install Roon Bridge on my Raspberry Pi3.

But now my question becomes, which is the most cost/effective hardware solution to run Roon Server?

In my initial thinking I have identified the following options:

1) Apple Mac Mini i5, 16Gb, 256Gb SSD (1099$)

2) Small Green Computer Sonic Transporter i5 (645$)

3) Intel NUC i5 (NUC6i5SYH+16Gb Ram+250Gb SSD) (583$)

Any other suggestion? Any hint would be more than welcome!

 

Get a decent PC but use a good powercord and vibration control= most cost effective solution