g-unit1111 :
I can't believe anyone would cool a $1,000 CPU with anything less than a full custom water block. If you do, you're doing it wrong.
Most rack-mount servers do not use water cooling, yet > $1k CPUs are the norm.
I've never used water cooling, and I'm still reluctant to take the "plunge". Of course, I'm similarly reluctant to buy a $1k CPU, as the most I've so far spent on a CPU is about $315.
If Intel fixes the IHS TIM and optimizes the mesh in the i7-8800X or i7-8820X, I'm likely to go for it. I'm currently using a bit over 24 lanes of PCIe 3.0 in my workstation, so I think 28 lanes would suit me just fine. Threadripper is definitely more than I want to spend, plus I'm still limited by single-thread performance a lot more often than I could use > 12 threads.
Zen+ might win me back to AMD's side, but I just wish it exposed a few more PCIe lanes.