Going to Build Intel NUC Server Fan or Not?

Well, i think an i7 would be serious overkill in terms of compute power.  I have a 15 year old AMD A10 running Roon with DSP just fine.

If you don't need CPU power, that means you can get really small with your Roon server, both the power supply and lack of fan or large heat sink go away.  Lots of micro PCs out there that should fit the bill.

The reason I am considering this DIY Roon server build is because sometimes my small green computer I5 server loses its handshake with the Roon program and then it is a pain in the butt to reestablish the connection. My I5 has a 64 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM. I never get any drop outs but there is an added layer of software complexity there that I wouldn’t mind eliminating by running only one program. I have added two fiber media converter boxes with a fiber optic cable to connect my router to my Weiss 501. Formerly I  used just one run of ethernet cable and for a few hundred dollars I tried this experiment with fiber optics. I could immediately hear the difference in the sound quality as more details were revealed and spatial cues increased. I’m guessing that means the noise floor was reduced.

If you do a Roon server, use an Ubuntu desktop image to set it up, then turn off the GUI afterwards.  That's a pretty lean system.

High TDP processors and real time upsampling can generate a lot of heat that no amount of passive cooling will dissipate.

@sonic79 ,

You can set the MIN-MAX TDP to 65 for the new i7-12700 chip. I have been running my passive cooled audio server for a few weeks now, upsampling all FLACs to DSD 512 and I have never seen Core Temp exceed 60C.

I was intending to use the 12700K for my music server build and looked into setting PL1 at 65W. Performance at 65W is on par with a Ryzen 5800x, so good enough for DSD256 using the lighter modulators and filters in HQPlayer. I am going a different route now using a 3rd gen Intel scalable processor with a TDP of 150W.

Do you use HQPlayer? I can upsample to DSD256 in Roon with my 2011 MacBook Pro with only a dual core processor. HQPlayer is a different beast, however.

You can set the MIN-MAX TDP to 65 for the new i7-12700 chip. I have been running my passive cooled audio server for a few weeks now, upsampling all FLACs to DSD 512 and I have never seen Core Temp exceed 60C.