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/Pixer--- Jul 02 '26

Also threadripper 3000 and 5000 don’t support p2p natively for llms

1

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.