Is Roon Nucleus the best choice for Roon Core and as server?

Not a large collection of stored music.  Where the album is available on Qobuz, I am usually pleased to stream it.   Prefer to keep this purchase in the neighborhood of the Nucleus to spend more, as I said, on the other components.  Thanks for these suggestions, I will check them out,

If you can follow instructions you can assemble your own dedicated ROCK server. Mine cost about $600 not counting the price of Roon. The OS is free.

https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Optimized_Core_Kit

If you use Roons OS you don’t need a streamer just an endpoint. Some DACs can be endpoints if the DAC you like isn’t all you need is a Roon bridge.

In my system I have a NUC running ROCK connected by ethernet in my home office. My ripped music files are on a drive connected to the NUC. In my listening room I have a raspberry pi4 running Ropiee which is a bridge connected by USB to my DAC. I control it with Roon app on tablet.

I built a Roon Rock server referenced to the top spec Roon details on their webpage;
Intel i7 8th Gen NUC
16GB DDR RAM
256GB SSD for the free "ROCK" OS
1TB SSD for content;
Cost about $750 all in; 

It's my understanding the above build is identical (save the awesome fanless CNC case of Nucleus) to the Nucleus +;


Best audio and functional performance I have heard yet from Roon. Boots in less than 3 seconds; Stable 24/7; Zero glitches, hangs, snags, pops, etc;
I messed around with Roon running in several popular platforms over a long period of time; I spent a lot of money experimenting with Roon and these various hardware bits; It was a mixture of fun and frustration, but the first hand experience was worth it; 
  
I highly recommend to anyone--build a Rock based Roon server; Go for the top spec; It's worth every penny!!

I have a v1 Roon Nucleus (not the +).  It was a notable set-up from using a MacBook Pro (look at my posts in other threads for more details).  Music in both cases was a 2TB Samsung T5 external USB drive.  Now i am getting close to 2TB of music, I purchased a Samsung 860 QVO SSD 4TB which I have yet to install.

It is a turnkey, easy solution.  If you want to build something, I think you can make something comparable for less, I was just more interested in saving time and hassle.

I am using a Schiit Yggy DAC, or KEF LS50w's, both of which are seen as Roon endpoints.

I LOVED the Roon software but was having stability issues running from my PC. I have built my own amps and I started a speaker company and was moving into the audio business.

I never thought about building my own server like the Rock above. I reached out to Roon for a discounted unit to use at AXPONA and I was talked into becoming a dealer and running a Nucleus+.

The only value to the Nucleus+ over the Nucleus is processing power and two things make a difference. The Nucleus+ is required if you want to run a DSP on DSD rather than on PCM, or if you have more than 120K tracks in a library.

I don’t know if it is the best available. I hear amazing things about units from Antipodes and Rockna but it is definitely the best in its price range.