News Walletripper: $1,300 Threadripper 7000 motherboard costs more than cheapest 12-core Pro chip

[Admin]

Asus Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE motherboard for AMD's Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-series processors goes up for preorder.

Walletripper: $1,300 Threadripper 7000 motherboard costs more than cheapest 12-core Pro chip : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

The MSI MEG X670E GODLIKE costs $1300 too (currently on sale for $1241.99) and can only do x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/4, and has far fewer features, so you could say it's far better value than the highest end consumer board

 

[coromonadalix]

when you'll pay for the cpu you'll see the difference loll

mobo is one thing cpu is the other

 

[das_stig]

When your pay $1300 for a CPU, what's another $1300 for the motherboard, when you also factor in memory, storage and GPU, this isn't your average consumer machine, so price is irrelevant to most who will purchase.

 

[jp7189]

It looks like the VRM fin stack is oriented side to side whereas most cases in the workstation class will blow front to back. This seems like a missed detail for a board in this class.

 

[coromonadalix]

good catch

 

[GustavoVanni]

But it is gorgeous! I'd buy three of them — one to go inside my PC and another two to frame on the wall, one showcasing the front and the other displaying the back.

 

[drajitsh]

I think there is a complexity -manufacturing bottleneck between PCI-E 5 and its redrivers, the extra PCI-E lanes (>>128), DDR5, CXLmemory and higher power at lower voltages. There is a full 1Q delay between announcement 27/10/23 and availability Jan 29,2024.

This is easily the most complex single processor production board I have seen. Even epyc Genoa boards do not have either the full memory or the full PCI-E slots.
It is a beast and worth it for the right use case.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I think that this article may be a bit of an overreaction when it comes to the price of a premium ASUS motherboard. A premium motherboard in the mainstream segment tends to cost a good deal more than the cheapest CPU that it can take and then you have to add the "ASUS-tax" which only makes it worse:

AM5 Cheapest CPU: R5-7600 - $194
Cheapest X670E Motherboard: ASRock X670E PG Lightning - $230
Cheapest ASUS X670E Motherboard: Asus PRIME X670E-PRO WIFI - $325

LGA1700 Cheapest CPU: i3-13100F - $119
Cheapest Z690 Motherboard with DDR5: ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4/D5 - $155
Cheapest ASUS Z690 Motherboard with DDR5: ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-PLUS-WIFI - $196

If you're building a pro-level HEDT workstation, then yeah, you're going to be spending some serious coin. Every time you go up a level, you pay exponentially more than the level below it. Just ask the people who have owned and operated Quadro GPUs.

The idea with a pro-level Threadripper HEDT workstation is that you're using it to make money and thus, the cost of the platform is more or less irrelevant because it will very quickly pay for itself. Having a premium-grade ASUS HEDT motherboard that costs 8% less than the cheapest CPU it can take looks like a bargain to me, certainly not something to cry about. Sure, the previous model was a good deal cheaper but this is still not bad compared to the mainstream segment of Ryzen and Core.

I have a feeling that Threadripper PRO CPUs will likely only be purchased by corporations anyway (which makes the price completely irrelevant). Home-based prosumers are far more likely to buy "normal" Threadripper CPUs for home-based HEDT desktops anyway. In THAT situation, $1500 would fetch a 24-core Threadripper 7960X which I believe would be a lot more attractive to home-based prosumers than a 12-core Threadripper PRO for $1400.

 

[Order 66]

AM5 Cheapest CPU: R5-3600 - $194

I’m assuming you meant the 7600, because the 3600 is AM4. Other than that, I agree.

 

[George³]

AM5 Cheapest CPU

7500f. Probably for $155-156 in some places if offers isn't fraud.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I’m assuming you meant the 7600, because the 3600 is AM4. Other than that, I agree.

Ack! Yep, you're right! If you click on it, it does show an R5-7600 IIRC.

There, fixed. Thanks for pointing it out! 😊👍

 

[Avro Arrow]

7500f. Probably for $155-156 in some places if offers isn't fraud.

Yeah, I was just looking quickly on pcpartpicker to prove a point. You're right though, that would be the least expensive. 😉👍

 

[bit_user]

Eh, what's $1.3k if you're also spending $10k on a 96-core TR Pro and probably several more thousand on RAM - not to mention GPUs and other peripherals?

BTW, it'd be super weird to buy the 12-core TR Pro. That's got to be for people that just need crazy amounts of I/O, for some reason. For most people who need 64 cores or less, save some money and go with the non-Pro TR 7000.

Also, it's hardly news that modern workstations are expensive. Try pricing out an Intel Xeon W-3400 machine and you'll find they're not exactly cheap, either.