Xeons as alternatives to Threadripper

[danio1011]

Hello all,

I was just curious if there are any Xeons out there that are a reasonable (I realize that's a vague word) alternative to Threadrippers?  I currently have an old dual Xeon build, a fairly new Threadripper build and am looking to spec out something a bit more robust for future work.  Does anyone have any recommendations for roughly doubling a 1950X Threadripper's performance?  Would one have to spend $4,000 for that?  Far more? 

I apologize for the uneducated question, I'm just looking for rough order of magnitude pricing.  Truth be told, I have a hard time understanding the Xeon product line.  I've also seen threads mentioning extreme thermal throttling with Xeons which scares me off a bit...

Thanks for any leads,
Daniel

[Nekrobul]

Look for E5-2675v3 16\32 each and pretty cheap you can get a pair for aproximetly a 950 eur.

Look here, we have worked with this guys and they prove to be reliable. https://www.workstation4u.de/de/konfigurator/hp/656/hp-z640-konfigurator

[agentdark45]

Not sure if you're aware, but Theadripper+ was just announced at computex and has 32 cores/64 threads and is backwards compatible with the last gen threadripper motherboards.

AMD are also on track to release the 7nm "Zen 2" gen next year which by all accounts will be a real game changer.

[Nekrobul]

I heard, but i think price for 1 processor wil be around 3000-4000 eur.

[agentdark45]

I heard, but i think price for 1 processor wil be around 3000-4000 eur.

Lets hope not! AMD are usually very competitively priced, and if they were to scale linearly from the previous gen it should be around the $2000 USD mark on launch. If anything it should be cheaper than 2k due to the multi-die nature of the chip (as opposed to Intels behemoth hard to produce single die products).

[Jann]

Was about to offer you my Xeon box, but re-read that you want double TR 1950X performance :D

Anyway, the E5 V3 Xeons mentioned before, and also E5-2686V3 or E5-2696V3 roughly equal a single TR 1950X. If you can get them in a pair (or just 100% same stepping). There is also modded bios for most 2011-3 socket boards, including some dual-socket boards. With that and proper cooling, you get 10-20% more out of those Xeons.
Upside will be lower space and other part requirements, especially RAM. Xeons work well with 2133MHz ddr4, both normal and server type, which are much cheaper than higher speed ram needed for AMD TR.

If you want some tests or info from a single E5-2686V3, just ask ;)

[danio1011]

Thanks all for the replies, very helpful!  I was looking through the benchmarks.  My read is (I might be wrong) that two E5-2675v3 would get you around the performance of one threadripper?  And two 2696's would get you to about double?  That's an interesting option because, like Jann says, cost might be somewhat offset by slower ram.  It sounds like if I'm shopping I need to make sure they match each other in some way, though?

Threadripper 2 is also interesting.  I suppose I could sell mine and swap cleanly.

FWIW, I was experiencing some diminishing performance due to a failing AIO and didn't realize it.  This doesn't alter my desire to get a new setup, but I don't recommend the Enermax Liqtech as a result.  I went with it instead of a Noctua and while it was good for the first few months, I just noticed that my threadripper was self throttling and running at 87C.  I checked and the fans were operating at 100% and pump was running (could feel it and it reported 3000rpms) and I even checked my grease situation and that was good.  I rush ordered a U14s from Noctua and now I'm running at 61C @ 3.8ghz.  After doing some looking around online I see a lot of similar reports due to corrosion in the lines, bubbles, etc.  Just an FYI for any Threadripper builders out there.

Cheers and thanks again for the replies!
Daniel