I have a fanless NUC running ROCK and use a raspberry pi4 as an endpoint with USB into DAC. I have also used the NUC straight into DAC with USB and never had a noise problem. If you are noticing a lot of noise it's probably the DAC more than the NUC. Border Patrol doesn't measure to well in jitter noise rejection so no matter what you put in front of the DAC you will still get the same out of it.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/borderpatrol-digital-analogue-converter-se-measurements
https://www.stereophile.com/content/borderpatrol-digital-analogue-converter-se-measurements