Can’t recommend ASUS VivoMini enough if you need Roon Core


Hi agoners,

I am an Apple guy but I do not want to spend the money on new Mac Mini for my Roon Core, do not want an older Mac Mini too because it seems outdated with old Wifi/limited USB port/no USB-C. After a few days of browsing, considering my options, even considered Roon Nucleus at one point I finally decided to buy a brand new ASUS VivoMini i7 8gb 256gb SSD drive with built in Windows 10 Pro. My God this thing is awesome! It’s MUCH cheaper than new Mac Mini, got CD drive so you can burn your CD directly, 2 extra slots for 2.5” SSD/HDD so I can postpone that NAS purchase, bunch of USB ports, a USB-C port, LAN port, HDMI, latest Wifi tech, run dead quiet (except on Windows setup) and it’s almost as small as a Mac Mini, plus it looks awesomely hi tech sitting beside your streamer. A total plug and play solution that won’t break the bank and it’s crazy stable. Mine is connected via HDMI to my TV on the wall behind my audio system, I can listen to my audio while having 56” screen displaying my Roon apps, browsing for music and arranging my playlist has become a million times easier.
uwiikz
Yeah, I figured as much, but uwiiks seems so excited about the Asus I thought I'd check it out.
Okay, I've been looking into the Asus. Which model did you buy and where did you get it (I'm finding everything is discontinued or out of stock).
I love the idea of connecting to TV via HDMI. Currently I run a synology NAS and Lumin U1 mini. I only stream Tidal or play files from my NAS using Android tablet and Lumin app to control.  What more would I gain by adding the ASUS VivoMini and Roon?
Roon will run fine on i5 and 4gb RAM but you don’t know what you are missing until you run it with i7 8gb RAM. Not familiar with JRiver but Roon is surprisingly heavy. 
Couldn't agree more.

I've been running one for my digital file server for the past 5 years.

An i7 is a bit overkill for a media server. My i5 has plenty of speed. But I only run JRiver Media Centre on it. YMMV.