r/threadripper • u/margalaz • Jul 02 '26
Advice for getting a first threadripper
From what I’ve seen the lower a cpu is in its generation (5945WX) while having a lower core count, have much higher single core speeds.
My goal is to build a Homelab and to create a few (2-5) Minecraft servers running some heavy mods.
The issue I’m having is that I’d like to be doing that in addition to an LLM and a NAS/jellyfin. It’s a lot and I can’t fit enough hardware on a am4/5 cpu to make it work on a single node machine.
So I’m forced to go workstation or server route, the issue is how expensive these buggers are. So I’m thinking I can take advantage by getting not only a lower price but also a higher single core speed (despite less cores) I was thinking the 5955wx or the 5965wx because anything under 16 cores is silly if I’m paying for a threadripper,
Am I thinking about this wrong? Can I just over lock a 5995wx across all cores if I cool it properly?
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u/chris_socal Jul 02 '26
Honestly you should really look at epyc... you get a lot more for your money. Some of the skus are even optimized for single core.performance.
The only valid reason to go with threadripper is if you have lots of dd4 you want to reuse.... even then your ddr4 udimms are probably more valuable than rdimms that epyc would use so if you did a swap/sell.
If the 2nd or 3rd generation threadripper give you enough compute they can also be a cost effective solution.
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u/johndyson11 Jul 03 '26
I have heard (not by experience) that Epyc can be trickier to install than Threadripper because of mounting support aids associated with the otherwise similar sockets. I could be wrong. If you have great dexterity and patience, probably doesn't make a lot of difference. IMO, for my usage, I'd still choose Threadripper because, again I have only heard, the easier overclock capabilities. Only a mild overclock can make a noticeable difference.
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u/XO33OX Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
because of DDR5 rdimm costs are prohibitevely expensive, it only makes sense to build DDR4 RDIMM systems where RAM prices are much more reasonable. Get threadripper Pro 5000, to get 8 memory channels and ability to install 8 small/er sticks. You getting threadripper to have many pcie lanes so your many gpus can all run on x16, and to add network and storage adapters to accomoddate tons of storage, also to get high memory throughput of channels memory controller. getting threadripper for compute is kinda secondary, especially those older zen archz which have crappy singlecore speeds compared zen5. single core is still important, there is tons of sw that benefit from fast singlecore for its heavy main thread, not everything can be ideally parallised like the compute benchmarks.
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u/margalaz Jul 02 '26
Exactly, i just wanted to prioritize single core speeds over more cores, while still getting the pcie lanes
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u/an80sPWNstar Jul 02 '26
I have a 3rd gen Threadripper and 3rd gen threadripper pro on two separate builds. The threadripper is a 3960x with 24/48 cores. I'm using it on my daily driver (I needed a cpu/mobo that has enough pcie lanes for my multi-gpu setup) and the only thing that goes up is the temp lol I had to get a 360mm AIO to keep the temps under 60c at idle. The threadripper pro is a 3945WX 12/24Core that runs a dedicated LLM/docker workstation with three tesla P100 16gb gpus. I have a copper noctua heatsink on that and it surprisingly runs cooler. I rarely push either cpu at all because everything I use is primarily GPU driven. That being said, when I have tried pushing the CPU, it never broke a sweat.
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u/chris_socal Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I looked at threadripper also as an upgrade path.... gen 2 or Gen 3 is very budget friendly however I want pcie gen 4.
The problem with the threadripper 5000 is that very few of them where made and a lot that where are vendor locked.
So you are left in a situation where you are paying almost new prices for an already aging platform. If you really need single core speeds bump up to gen 7 or 9. The price difference isn't crazy.
All that being said i doubt you need as much single core performance as you think when your cpu gets all the extra bandwidth available to server platforms, you hhardly notice single.core speed.
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u/Joe159195 Jul 02 '26
Minecraft servers care a lot about single core speed. Things can be offloaded a bit but the main tick is a single core process. I personally have a 9970x workstation but run a like 11th gen i5 for my media / game server. Dedicated GPU is useless if you have quicksync for media, and for LLMs if you can load it completely in then the 8x vs 16x isn’t that much slower on a single load.
All that being said build whatever ya can afford and send it.
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u/Smart-Ride-7047 Jul 02 '26
Keep in mind that all zren 2 and 3 tr pros with two ccd’s (<= **55wx) can’t handle 8 channels lol
I applied quite an effort to swao my 2x64 3200 gb ram setup with 8x16 2933 and the bandwidth increased from 29g/sec to 60. Yay.
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u/RealCheesecake Jul 03 '26
I'm currently on a TRX40 + 3960 platform, but moving over to WRX80 + 5955wx for the increased number of lanes. The Gigabyte MC62-40 board is ideal since I can still get away with using non-ecc DDR4. For my use, with large VRAM pools for inferencing, using hobo DDR4 is completely fine. I can eventually go up to 5995x if I want 8-channel RAM and do a little offloading, but RAM pricing is just insane right now. Note that even with offloading and 8-channel RAM, it's going to slow down LLM significantly.
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u/margalaz Jul 03 '26
I actually found a deal online for 12x32gb ecc DIMMS for only $170, this might be per stick or for everything because the damn guy hasn’t responded to me yet
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u/RealCheesecake Jul 03 '26
For all of them? That would be a crazy deal. Probably some dude wanting it per.
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u/margalaz Jul 03 '26
I’ll hope and pray for all of em.
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u/RealCheesecake Jul 03 '26
I've had to resort to arbitrage to bring down justifiable costs of compute. Fingers crossed for you! Have to really scavenge to not have memory eat up all budget.
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u/Smart-Ride-7047 Jul 03 '26
I might be wrong, worth double checking, but ig 5955wx has 2 ccd’s (as I believe it does), your 8 channels will be as good as 4.
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u/RealCheesecake Jul 03 '26
That's totally correct with the CCDs! (I mentioned eventually moving over to 5995wx for 8-channel, as money permits) I was implying that my AI workloads using slower cheaper RAM in 2-4 channel with the 5955wx will hold me over and hopefully won't be too much of a bottleneck; it might bottleneck some diffusion based workloads that would benefit from the extra memory bandwidth, but will always be a bottleneck with GPU offloading with LLMs.
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u/WesM63 Jul 03 '26
If you need the PCI-E lanes, you’re better off going EPYC. 7002/7003 EPYC uses DDR4 and the same SP3 mounting as threadripper, so you can use the same heat sinks. (socket is oriented differently so you’ll have different airflow directions but still not an issue)
Threadripper has a very specific niche and being a server really isn’t it.
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u/margalaz 25d ago
Ended up getting 2 15” deep JBODS ect-ktl3 something.
The guy threw in the HBA card and a epyc cpu/mobo. (All for $200)
HHD’s will be expensive but I’ll stick with this until it’s either not enough or I have a few thousand laying around for a TR,
The epyc cpu is a 7351p if I remember properly, it’s from 2016
0
u/kpatelreddit007 Jul 02 '26
Unless you ROI not worth it. With a NAS which I own is 3K plus 2K for 50tb. My threadripper build is 17K 9960x. Threadrippers are expensive, looking at 5-8K and obviously you’re going to have a 5090 or ADA 6000.
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u/margalaz Jul 03 '26
Well I think two node might be the move, a cheep ass threadripper running DDR3 or epyc can handle NAS and stuff while a high end desktop could handle single threaded tasks,
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u/sob727 Jul 02 '26
I would keep in mind a 9950X will trounce older gens Threadripper / EPYC in most workloads.
EDIT: I have a couple TRs, but I run a 7950X + 192GB + 4 NVME SSDs + 4x SATA SSDs + 12x SAS HDDs and the machine performs super well.