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Advice needed - buying a new Computer for Roon and General Purpose.

I've used a Nuc7 for the last 18months as a general purpose PC,the i3 is totally silent and with 8GB of RAM and 500GB SSD does everything I need-graphics speed is p--s poor but I don't do games.
 
I picked up a NUC8i5BEH (H being the tall one so an SSD or 9mm tall 2.5” drive can sit inside) and installed Roon ROCK on it. It’s under the tv as that’s the only screen I own with hdmi connectivity. Works perfectly, and is nice and responsive. Quiet too, once I got past the initial analysis of files, and even during analysis you’d have had to listen carefully to hear it.
Very pleased with it. Although I’m not doing so, NUCs run Windows perfectly well, and they’re small enough to fit to the rear of the monitor. Do that and add a wireless mouse and wireless keyboard and you have a very tidy setup.

Mick
 
OK OK - I've refined the shopping list further - excluding the £19 Windows 10 license the hardware now comes to £337.92

I've stuck with the slightly older Bean Canyon NUC (because of their superior graphics) but have now chosen the taller case design allowing me to house an additional SSD later if I need it - I've kept with an i3 processor because they run cooler. By implementing a Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe and HyperX Impact memory - this may help boost / balance out an i3 design nicely.

So far kit list has been tweaked to this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07K2BZHYQ/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07MHXYL6T/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071L1VBDN/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
 
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This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
gavreid said:
I'm now running an i3 8th gen nuc with JRiver into Chord 2qute in my main system - it's just fine. You can set quiet power curve and fan speeds in bios if you wish
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That's good to know thanks ... having also endowed my i3 8th gen NUC with far faster than average memory and NVMe ssd - I'm hoping for quite a good turn of speed despite being an i3. The NUC arrived yesterday - just waiting on the internal parts.
 
beammeup said:
That's good to know thanks ... having also endowed my i3 8th gen NUC with far faster than average memory and NVMe ssd - I'm hoping for quite a good turn of speed despite being an i3. The NUC arrived yesterday - just waiting on the internal parts.
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I've just got Crucial 2400 in mine, 2 x 8GB, and I load the uncompressed track to memory before playback (JRiver option). I've also got it wired with wifi turned off altogether. I doesn't feel like a slow coach at all and I'm used to a fast PC.
 
gavreid said:
I've just got Crucial 2400 in mine, 2 x 8GB, and I load the uncompressed track to memory before playback (JRiver option). I've also got it wired with wifi turned off altogether. I doesn't feel like a slow coach at all and I'm used to a fast PC.
Click to expand...

I think I was just being cautious.... I'm also using it as a general purpose Office and light photo editing PC so I thought I would be safe - and the better performing memory and SSD are good value at the mo'

Most impressively is how well the i3 performs against the last generation NUC with i7 - see these benchmark results here: https://nucblog.net/2018/10/coffee-lake-nuc8i3beh-review/2/ - so I don't think I have anything to worry about either way.
 
beammeup said:
I think I was just being cautious.... I'm also using it as a general purpose Office and light photo editing PC so I thought I would be safe - and the better performing memory and SSD are good value at the mo'

Most impressively is how well the i3 performs against the last generation NUC with i7 - see these benchmark results here: https://nucblog.net/2018/10/coffee-lake-nuc8i3beh-review/2/ - so I don't think I have anything to worry about either way.
Click to expand...

That's right. It's 2 core 4 thread so that's the real limitation but Adobe apps, for example, are notorious for not being multi-threaded anyway...
 
I also like the redesigned fan on the NUC version 8, it's bigger so if it spins it's quieter than smaller fans. Nice overall package it would seem - I will keep you guys updated (or bored) when I have finished building it.
 
I've just found out by looking at the NUC that it takes a 19V connection - I could therefore use my SOtM sPS-500 to power the NUC (currently used to power my sPS-200 Ultra) if I wanted to try a high quality psu into the computer for audio if that makes a difference.

Currently - the sPS-500 is dutifully providing juice to the sPS-200 and the Chord Mojo (the USB ports from the sPS-500 provide power to the Mojo) - the second USB port is powering the Netgear wireless bridge.

 
For anyone wanting a good Intel NUC to build from - I saw today the Amazon has reduced the price of the one I chose further to £216 - cracking bargain.
 
OK system now built as per photos below .. I did however splurge on another 8GB or RAM so I could run dual channel - unnecessary but - hey ho.





 
The thing to consider and I believe that most peeps don't is the mobo capabilities. For example the frost canyon employs PCIe x2 so you'll be wasting money on that Samsung SSD as it needs x4 i.e. four channels to achieve its higher speed. So when you run an SSD speed test you'll only see about half its rated speed. Similarly with RAM. The FC has dual channel so a mobo with 4 channels will be able to read/write to RAM twice as fast although you'll also need 4 instead of 2 units.

Cheers,

DV
 
Yes the motherboard can be a pinch point. My particular NUC is the Bean Canyon - I accept some limitations (due to the size) but the mb supports NVMe which is good and I'm getting excellent test results back from the Samsung 970 EVO plus - and dual channel via the two available slots will be quick enough for me. Various reviews and tests show that the Bean Canyon has a graphics performance increase up to 40% better running the memory in dual channel mode so I thought I would take the opportunity and get that extra 8GB of RAM too.

The fan does kick in on a regular basis (luckily it's not noisy) when running in balanced mode - so I changed the bios to run in quiet mode which has helped keep the fan at bay. Not that I'm too bothered - but I'm fiddling in readiness to put the NUC in an audiophile context.
 
All these options are far too cheap, you can get a new mac mini with 8th gen i3, for 800. You know it makes sense.
 
Is that the taller model you have there? I'm guessing that it is. I think they cool a little better with the extra space, nvme drives can also get really quite warm in my experience. I just run mine with a standard 2.5 inch sata ssd.
 
gavreid said:
Is that the taller model you have there? I'm guessing that it is. I think they cool a little better with the extra space, nvme drives can also get really quite warm in my experience. I just run mine with a standard 2.5 inch sata ssd.
Click to expand...

Yes it's the taller model - in case I wanted to add a standard 2.5 inch sata SSD later. These little NUCs can be very versatile. A Mac Mini was an option but yes - I'm cheaping out on a NUC - because I don't "need" a Mac Mini - it will give me no more of an advantage above and beyond this little NUC that I can think of (can you?).
 
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