Due to personal preference and a bit of coincidence, I ended up with a first-generation AMD Threadripper, complete with motherboard and cooler. I would describe the purchase price as “unignorable low”; I bought it second-hand via “Kleinanzeigen”.
A old Threadripper wasn’t my first choice, but it was up there. The power consumption, especially when idle, is said to be quite high, which is probably due to the multi-die design of these CPUs. On the positive side, there are plenty of PCI Express 3.0 lanes. The bundle consisted of the following components:
Processor
| Name | AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X* |
| Cores / Threads | 16 / 32 |
| Architecture | Zen ↳ Whitehaven |
| Lithography / Manufacturer | 14 nm – Globalfoundries FinFET |
| Clocks | Base clock: 3.40 GHz All-Core Boost: 3.60 GHz Max. Turbo-Boost: 4.00 GHz Max. XFR-Clock: 4.20 GHz |
| Socket | TR4 |
| Caches | L1 : 1.5 MB L2: 8 MB L3: 32 MB |
| Memory | DDR4-2666, optional with ECC XMP / DOCP possible |
| TDP | 180 Watts |
| Compatible chipsets | X399 (Promontory – HEDT) |
⧉ AMD
⧉ TPU
⧉ TPUCPU Cooling
With an emphasis on appearance, the bundle included a powerful Wraith Ripper processor cooler from CoolerMaster. Only compatible with the TR4 socket, it was released specifically for the launch of the second generation Threadripper. I would have bought something flatter (and without RGB) from Noctua, BeQuiet, or Thermalright, but that’s just how it turned out.
⧉ CoolerMaster
⧉ CoolerMaster
⧉ CoolerMasterMainboard
I’m a little unhappy with this one – it’s turned out to be an RGB-overloaded Christmas tree, an AORUS Gaming 7 from Gigabyte. Not really the right choice for use in a rack case. From a technical point of view, it will work fine, but I’m turning the RGB off completely.
However, the VRMs are quite weak, so the 1950X (or its successor, the 2950X) is the best you can hope for. With the new UEFI version, second-generation Threadrippers, some of which have a significantly higher TDP (32 cores and 64 threads with the 2990WX -> 250 watts TDP), should also work in theory. Overclocking is not recommended with this board, with any Threadripper variant for TR4. The power supply and its cooling are too weak.
If I had had the choice, I would have gone with MSI or ASUS, as I usually do. Nevertheless, the Gigabyte board is still well suited for its intended purpose.
⧉ Gigabyte
⧉ Gigabyte
⧉ GigabyteLet’s move on to the other components, starting with the Memory.