Roon Music Server build and setup of Rock for a great Roon core on a Intel nuc

[@nadeembrossard8687]

Finally a detailed step by step tutorial for setting up a Roon core on a Intel Nuc Thank you Gaby for a great video.

[@Riceowlfan]

Thank you for this video. I just finished setting up my new NUC/ROCK combo and everything is working great thanks to your clear instructions. And I saved $900 compared to a Nucleus.

[@Gabster1]

Thank you, Happy to hear the instructions worked out for you

[@Joel-m777]

Thanks! Gabby. Used this video today while installing rock on a NUC 12. This video was a great help! Cheers.

[@Gabster1]

Glad it helped!

[@klausmuller2570]

Hi Gabster, thanks for the video. I installed ROON ROCK on a NUC11TNHi7, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB M.2 SSD with the help of the video. At first the M.2 hard disk was not recognized and the BIOS update did not run. After external formatting of the M.2 hard disk it worked. Then I followed your video and the installation was no problem. Now ROON ROCK has been running for 3 days. Best regards from Germany 🙂🙃🙂

[@2bravomike]

Thank you so much for this excellent video. I set up my own NUC server following your guidance and I am delighted by how well Roon is working. Accessing Qobuz through Roon has completely solved my streaming issues, so I couldn't be happier!

[@Gabster1]

Glad it helped!

[@andrzejangielski8328]

I always enjoy watching your movies, will be waiting for the "simplified" streamer version you mentioned but please don’t let us wait too long! I'm very interested in DIY audio systems that you can easily update, especially multiroom solutions, low to medium price level versions. Thanks a lot for a great job you are doing!

[@TheChosenOne-KQX]

Installed ROCK on an used Dell Optiplex 3060 mini pc by following your steps and it is ROCKing!! Thanks Gabby. Now the thing is I might have forgot to disable Fast Boot and I cant get into the BIOS. Tried everything so far except removing the battery but am afraid that it might restore the bios to default causing ROCK to fail. LOL!

[@lorenzocriscuolo7869]

I installed Roon Rock yesterday on my HTPC old desktop computer (not on an intel nuc) for the first time. I was using Roon Server on windows previously and was not satisfied,so decided to go with Rock. Much better now. Your video was of great help. I am aware that Roon Rock is not supported on other non intel nuc computers but took the chance anyways,we’ll see how it goes long term. Thanks! 🙏

[@ZZFilm]

Which old PC did you use? Or did you build it yourself?

[@lorenzocriscuolo7869]

A 10 year old HP desktop (p1243) that i upgraded from i3 to i7 cpu,from 8gb to 16gb ram,from hdd to ssd, new more powerful (be Quiet) psu,and better quieter cpu fan from Noctua. I transferred all the hardware from HP case to a new htpc case from Silverstone. Separate internal ssd for storage only. Since switching from windows to Roon rock os it’s all working like a charm. The entire upgrade may have cost around 500$ max.

[@ZZFilm]

@@lorenzocriscuolo7869 Wow. Nice. Thanks for the update.

[@gabrielr4933]

Hola, yo he instalado roon rock, en Lenovo ThinkCentre mini, HP mini, y sin ningún problema, son más baratas que el Intel nuc y con mayor potencia

[@JasDua]

I like that your main setup is a screenless laptop!

[@dell177]

I did this last fall using a miniForums Ryzen 7 unit with 16GB ram (probably to much) anew 250GB stick disk and a 500GB 2.5" disk for my library of 8,000 tunes. It's been runing fine without any hiccups. i used the MiniForums machine because I had it, I have no idea if their other models work but if you have one just try, nothing to lose but the time it takes to install Roon Rock.

[@jeffreylowy3180]

Wow! Thank you! I was trying to decide whether to wait and purchase the Roon Nucleus (which some say isn’t really that great) or find an alternative. Being a thoroughly intimidated boomer the thought of physically putting a computer together (or just installing memory) I’ve been scared to death. Watching this video made me believe I could actually do it! I’ll check back and let you know how much I destroyed….😮

[@SergioMartinez-nw6vf]

Very good video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Greets from Brazil!

[@Gabster1]

Glad it was helpful!

[@shovelhead56]

Thank You for sharing your knowledge! Much appreciated🤙

[@simonlakin5067]

Thanks for this excellent video. I’ll be using it to build my nuc. ❤

[@longbluesquid]

I’m tempted to try Roon NUC

[@kzil]

Very helpful, thanks!

[@neosystas]

It works! Thank you.... 😊

[@Gabster1]

Glad you found it helpful 🙂

[@Daniel_Zalman]

First, thank you so much for taking the time to make such a clear video. This is extremely helpful! Does the NUC need to be connected to the internet at some point during this process? I don't have an external monitor (I have an iMac, which can't be used as one, unfortunately), so I'm going to be connecting the NUC to my TV during setup and my TV isn't near my Modem.

[@Roger-lz9ro]

great info Thank you

[@samratroy4189]

Can we use an alternative mini PC with the right specs like a 16gn memory and i5 processor instead of a NUC...just thinking if a sub $300 machine is good enough...i dont have a lot of high res files locally but use Tidal streaming mainly from a Rpi4 end point .. Thank you !

[@gabrielr4933]

Hola yo instale roon rock en Lenovo mini ThinkCentre, HP mini, y funciona sin problemas, más barato y potente que el Intel nuc

[@cyrussadaghiani8078]

Thanks!

[@Gabster1]

Thank You

[@allanw.4500]

This is a great video. I setup my Roon ROCK on a Skull Canyon NUC a few years ago and love it. There aren't many videos out there that goes into the detail that yours does. I have never seen a video that addresses the power supply. Since I use mine for USB output to a DAC, I am very interested in getting a linear power supply. The power brick that came with it lists 19V 6.32A. I'd like to get as high a quality as I can find. Is there a better one you can suggest for a higher budget, perhaps available from a US supplier?

[@rogerhuston8287]

Imjust did this, except i put proxmox on first.

[@kellyobrien9098]

If I want to use the single ethernet port to feed my DAC, will an ethernet to USB adapter into the NUC work? Is there a better configuration that I should consider?

[@miles267]

How do you setup HQPlayer on the same NUC Roon Rock machine?

[@derrickdavis7917]

I put ROCK on a AMD Athlon dual core processor.. no lie.. Just wanted to see if it would even boot... It's been great so far!

[@Gabster1]

Yes it can work on on slow processors some functions will be slow but overall you do not need a lot of processing power

[@michelboivin4396]

Do you hear the fan when listening to music at low volume?

[@Gabster1]

Not at all it runs very slow

[@MrLeszekcha]

Hello, how do think or you know? M.2 SSD 64Gb for OS Roon Rock will be enough ? Music library will has other storage. Thank you in advance for advice.

[@Gabster1]

More then enough even 32 GB is fine

[@MrLeszekcha]

Thank you@@Gabster1 for tutorial. I can confirm, ROON ROCK runs on NUC8i3PNK M.2 SSD 64GB, RAM 8GB.

[@swadeheel]

Hello! I am trying to install rock on exactly the same nuc as in your demo (11PAHi7). I also have the same SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 250GB. I can see it is properly installed because it shows up in the Advanced>Storage bios-screen. However, it does not show up in the list where you choose the boot priority?! Any idea what I can do? I read somewhere that the nuc does not support the M.2 NVMe protocol, only the M.2 sata version. But you don't seem to have any problem with that? I already updated the bios to the latest version, so that should not be the cause of the problem. Any suggestions?

[@Gabster1]

Not sure but if it is the only drive it should boot regardless of priority Make sure the evo drive is new and not formatted with windows or Mac

[@bruunm1975]

If I never store local files. Do I need to format an extra drive?

[@roofermarc1]

I didn't buy a nuc. I have a mobo and ssd and a memory card. How do I know what generation of nuc do I have? How do I do this.

[@samratroy4189]

Do i need to run a backup if i have no physical files but have albums from tidal. I am only using a roon core from my old laptop but want to move to Nuc. Will my roon core setup auto transfer? Thank you

[@Gabster1]

Yes you need to backup then restore in the new core so all your playlists are saved

[@samratroy4189]

Thank you @@Gabster1 , So in that case, you videos shows that you did your backup after ROCK was setup. Is that how you want me to go about it or do I have to do something different. I don't have any local files but mainly curated playlists and albums from streaming Tidal through Roon, so trying to understand if there is any other way that is required for such. Appreciate your guidance.

[@lizard1276]

Спасибо!

[@Gabster1]

Thank you for your support

[@davidspendlove5900]

I found Roon to work very well , rock solid, but I could never get the sound quality right.

[@Gabster1]

Do not use any dsp or volume leveling, software volume etc… they kill the sound

[@davidspendlove5900]

@@Gabster1 I don’t use dsp and have pretty much disabled everything.I intend to get a better power supply to the rock but am sceptical this will have an effect.

[@blairjackson5070]

I noticed the music files are in this video show mp3 files. Are you also making your digital files lossless? Also what lossless codec do you prefer? 🤔

[@Gabster1]

I use Flac to rip Cd's got some DSD and MP3 files waiting for some free time to rip my CD collection. The mp3's are more for some projects not a fan in General

[@fixall4ever]

Why install rock if i can just install the windows version on my nuc. Tks

[@Hector_Malot]

It doesn't ask me which drive to install on, it takes the USB key by default.

[@peterrodriguez9436]

Can't find the bios update.

[@petedudley1]

The Amazon link you provide to the NUC is taking me to a laptop. Can you update the link please?

[@Gabster1]

Sure That link sold out try this one amzn.to/44EsmFk

[@carminedambrosio7]

Sorry, I just don't understand one thing. I had thought that Roon also acted as an operating system for the Intel Nuc to work: instead Windows 11 or 10 is still installed, therefore in terms of recurring updates and internal processes increase, there is the same problem that one would have with a laptop or a desktop. Except for the absence of internal fans, which still makes the system less noisy.

[@Gabster1]

I am not using windows here it is a Roon version of Linux called Rock you download it from the Roon site that is stripped down to basic functions There is a fan in a Nuc but runs almost silent due to little processing. Hope that helps

[@carminedambrosio7]

@@Gabster1 Ok. Thanks for clarifying .

[@roofermarc1]

They don't show all this on roon when installing rock on a nuc! I've read it,several times.

[@danieljung2810]

Im curious why at the end of the video you transferred the music to your internal storage? Isn't the internal storage only 250gb while your external was 1 tb?

[@markhalstead2386]

The 1 TB is also internal as there are no external USB drives attached.

[@michaelcrowther8889]

Thanks for this. I built a Roon core exactly how you showed and it works great. One thing I'm still not clear on: When I buy new music, I transfer it to the internal drives of my NAD M50.2 player/vault. (I actually download it to a Windows laptop, then copy it to the NAD, which appears as a mapped network driveon the laptop). However, I'm not clear on how the NUC core gets that data from the NAD and adds it to the Roon library. It sometimes takes quite a while until it "shows up." Am I using the wrong procedure? Thanks!

[@nodusk]

what linear power supply do you reccomend /

[@Gabster1]

I use this one ebay.us/QX0dtz but will need to open it and adj the output to 19v by turning the trim pot.

[@OurTravel-g5l]

Did you hear any SQ difference going with the upgraded power supply?

[@Gabster1]

@@OurTravel-g5l hard to tell I would say no if you are using a separate streamer and big if you are using the USB output but it does not hurt for sure

[@OurTravel-g5l]

Is it possible to use USB out from NUC/ ROCK to DAC USB?

[@Gabster1]

Yes you can but should definitely upgrade to a good linear power supply

[@OurTravel-g5l]

@gabster Thank you for such a helpful video. I was able to get my ROCK up and running in 1.5 hours (I am not handy with hardware). I appreciate your link for the power supply; however, the power supply is not configured for 19V and there is no amperage listed for the product. Also, how many ampeage is required for the NUC 11 NUC11PAHi7?

[@Gabster1]

@@OurTravel-g5l You will need a voltmeter and adj the trim pot for 19v easy you can also ask them to set it for 19v for you It is rated for 50w so about 2.5 A it runs fine does not get hot at all on my tester the Nuc was drawing 1.3 A but that is with Roon Rock if you use windows i am sure it will draw a lot more.

[@wilbertiii]

In this set up, what exactly is the OS?

[@rodolfofranco154]

You don't really need a Nuc for Roon server. I have a Dell optiplex as my server and ut works great.

[@Silvermoth_486]

I'd like a linux client for controlling the playback 😁

[@bigpebble]

Do some prayers! :)

[@jungtarcph]

you use a i7-1165g for a server.... 🤣🤣 it could live with a 2 cores i3..... ✌✌

[@michaelcrowther8889]

Roon's DSP functions are complex and intensive, and not all of them work even on Roon's own basic Nucleus core (which is built around an i3). As Roon continues to mature, I'm sure that processor demands will continue to grow.