In late 2017 I built myself a threadripper based workstation for ~5000$ with a 1950x, 64gb ECC (can fit up to 128), a single 1080 ti, single NVMe drive and two 8tb HDDs.
The system was designed to allow for more HDDs (case space and thermal capacity, 8 should fit easily), 4 GPUs and durable enough so that I can wrap it up and ship it around the world if needed (The whole thing weighs ~18kg with a single GPU. Whether shipping a PC is a good idea or not I have yet to find out)
Threadripper was still 1000$ + motherboard for 300$. And RAM was at all time high with 750$ for 64gb ECC.
Because of this price tag I considered getting a used xeon, but looking at the total I probably would have only saved less than 1000$, or 20%, perhaps 100-200$ more due to used RAM for a total of 24%.
That percentage saving is much lower than expected.
Other factors:
The cpu mentioned in the article has 40 PCIe lanes vs. 60 in threadripper and I figured more lanes is better should I ever put in all 4 GPUs. This seems to more or less not matter though. Something learned since then.
Better energy efficiency (newer processor and better PSU), more control over heat and noise (assumption, I have 6 quiet fans in there), more lanes (although near useless for GPUs apparently), more room for storage (8-12 drives possible), GPUs (4 possible) and simply all parts new with warranty for 20-24% more
This is very use case specific of course and there might be better used systems available as well but I would probably do it again. The savings were less than I initially thought and that was at an all time high for RAM prices and the first generation of threadrippers, should be even less now. What I should have done differently is use it more often, but that's a different story.
-> The expensive parts are storage, GPU and high quality case/PSU/fans.
If you want to build your first workstation, storage and GPUs should be bought separately anyways. But if you don't need them or already have those from a different system, a used xeon sounds interesting. You still probably save less than expected though, over the years with less warranty, more power draw and more work necessary (which can be fun! not denying that)
(Yes the linked article is about home computer, not workstation. This is a different scenario. I figured it's nonetheless relevant for some)
Threadripper was still 1000$ + motherboard for 300$. And RAM was at all time high with 750$ for 64gb ECC.
Because of this price tag I considered getting a used xeon, but looking at the total I probably would have only saved less than 1000$, or 20%, perhaps 100-200$ more due to used RAM for a total of 24%. That percentage saving is much lower than expected.
Other factors:
The cpu mentioned in the article has 40 PCIe lanes vs. 60 in threadripper and I figured more lanes is better should I ever put in all 4 GPUs. This seems to more or less not matter though. Something learned since then.
Better energy efficiency (newer processor and better PSU), more control over heat and noise (assumption, I have 6 quiet fans in there), more lanes (although near useless for GPUs apparently), more room for storage (8-12 drives possible), GPUs (4 possible) and simply all parts new with warranty for 20-24% more
This is very use case specific of course and there might be better used systems available as well but I would probably do it again. The savings were less than I initially thought and that was at an all time high for RAM prices and the first generation of threadrippers, should be even less now. What I should have done differently is use it more often, but that's a different story.
-> The expensive parts are storage, GPU and high quality case/PSU/fans. If you want to build your first workstation, storage and GPUs should be bought separately anyways. But if you don't need them or already have those from a different system, a used xeon sounds interesting. You still probably save less than expected though, over the years with less warranty, more power draw and more work necessary (which can be fun! not denying that)
(Yes the linked article is about home computer, not workstation. This is a different scenario. I figured it's nonetheless relevant for some)