efaardvark

Just thought I'd poke a bit at an entry-level threadripper system.  I know, that's kind of a strange thought when all the gamers are still salivating over a i9-9900k for the single-core performance, but it turns out that a low-end 1900X CPU, 2 sticks of 16GB, 3200MHz DDR4, and a really (like, really really) nice motherboard can be had for less than $1k.  The motherboard is totally overkill for the initial RAM and CPU, but with AMD it should be upgradable for many years.  Maybe in a year or so - when the bleeding edge has moved on - you replace the 8-core 1900X with a 16-core 2950.  At some point you buy another couple sticks of RAM.  Did I mention the MB supports quad-channel?

If you already have a decent case, power supply, etc., then swapping out the guts for an 8-core system (that would have been considered a monster just a couple years ago in the old Intel era) might make sense.  With that MB you could go all the way up to a 32-core/64-thread CPU and 128GB RAM.  It also has *3* nvme m.2 slots, not to mention dual network ports (one of them 10Gb).  For games.. ok, maybe not so much.  (Yet?)  But if your workflow includes things that might benefit from a lot of cores..... maybe.  It is also quite possible I'm just a tech geek looking for new toys.