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Years ago you could get a decent Intel I7 + motherboard for $500-$600. Enthusiasts has the option of spending another $300-$400 to get ECC, more cores, more PCIe, and more memory channels/bandwidth/max memory. Peak performance (cache friendly) wasn't necessarily noticeably better, but real world performance, especially in the average or worst case was. In particular things like running multiple virtual machines or heavy desktop workloads (like eclipse) would bog the machine down less. With the extra PCIe lanes you could build better RAIDs, use 1 GPU per monitor, and handle faster network cards. The extra memory bandwidth didn't help much with cache friendly uses (like most games), but was a big help when you were running workloads that were not cache friendly.
For a modest premium ($300-$400) you could have a better system and it would likely age better (i.e. you could keep it longer before upgrading).
Today's Threadripper PRO does that, but even the 16 core Threadripper PRO 7955wx CPU is $1,900 and the motherboard is much more expensive as well. There are older Threadrippers, but they are still Zen 3. Even one of the lower end Threadripper PROs, the 7955wx 16-core model uses 350 watts (almost 3x) the 16 core AMD Epyc 8124P sienna, making it much harder to build a quiet system for your office. In my opinion $1,400-$9,999 for a Threadripper PRO CPUs is well above most enthusiast budgets and for most only an option when work is paying for the machine.
I noticed the AMD Epyc Sienna 8124P is pretty attractive. Compared to the Ryzen 7950x it has 3X the memory bandwidth, 4x the PCIe, and same number of cores. Sure the cores are zen4c instead zen4, which has a smaller cache, but at least for some workloads the 3x the memory bandwidth should help. For other use cases like using 1 GPU per monitor, handling multiple NVMEs, and 10/25/100G ethernet the extra 4x the PCIe lanes can be a big win.
Compared to the Threadripper PRO 7955WX the Sienna 8124P has the same number of cores, 75% of the memory channels, and 75% of the PCIe. The benefits are that the 8124P is 33% of the price and 35% of the watts/heat. If you need more cores, the 24 core version (8224P) is only another $216.
Sure the 8124P is not a Threadripper pro killer, but it's a pretty big upgrade from the Ryzen 7950x in most ways and is *CHEAPER* and cooler, not bad for 3x the memory bandwidth and 4x the PCIe.
What do people think?
For a modest premium ($300-$400) you could have a better system and it would likely age better (i.e. you could keep it longer before upgrading).
Today's Threadripper PRO does that, but even the 16 core Threadripper PRO 7955wx CPU is $1,900 and the motherboard is much more expensive as well. There are older Threadrippers, but they are still Zen 3. Even one of the lower end Threadripper PROs, the 7955wx 16-core model uses 350 watts (almost 3x) the 16 core AMD Epyc 8124P sienna, making it much harder to build a quiet system for your office. In my opinion $1,400-$9,999 for a Threadripper PRO CPUs is well above most enthusiast budgets and for most only an option when work is paying for the machine.
I noticed the AMD Epyc Sienna 8124P is pretty attractive. Compared to the Ryzen 7950x it has 3X the memory bandwidth, 4x the PCIe, and same number of cores. Sure the cores are zen4c instead zen4, which has a smaller cache, but at least for some workloads the 3x the memory bandwidth should help. For other use cases like using 1 GPU per monitor, handling multiple NVMEs, and 10/25/100G ethernet the extra 4x the PCIe lanes can be a big win.
Compared to the Threadripper PRO 7955WX the Sienna 8124P has the same number of cores, 75% of the memory channels, and 75% of the PCIe. The benefits are that the 8124P is 33% of the price and 35% of the watts/heat. If you need more cores, the 24 core version (8224P) is only another $216.
Sure the 8124P is not a Threadripper pro killer, but it's a pretty big upgrade from the Ryzen 7950x in most ways and is *CHEAPER* and cooler, not bad for 3x the memory bandwidth and 4x the PCIe.
What do people think?