Buy X299 now or Wait for Intel fishhawk?

So I’ve been eying another X299 build for a VM lab / HPC box with 2x NVIDIA A30 GPUs / AMD W6600 + 40gb Intel XL710 , most likely a 10980xe as they have dropped prices now to around 450 used although I’ve heard through the grapevine that Intel is giving a new HEDT like platform within the next few months, with Intel Fishhawk. Think its worth waiting for to see if its a possibility? the project isn’t in dire need right now and id be fine waiting, but I just don’t want to be waiting for almost 2 years like I did with “Threadripper 5000” and have my hopes ruined.

to quote linus sebastion
“The best computer you can get is the one you have”

meaning if you want it or need it now, get it now

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Be aware that there are problems on launch quite likely with new boards/chipsets.

X299 by now should be well sorted. It had issues on launch just like x99 before it.

What’s your appetite for bugs?

Waiting for the next big thing isn’t always a good idea.

x299 is already that old that i wouldn’t consider it an option anymore really.
Of course used parts can be found for cheap.
However the platform it self is really old.

idk what you currently have?

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And whats to stop that happening with the intel stuff. Waiting games are always going to be a disapointment and waiting for intel right now is not a good idea.

Could have a ferrari now, or a fireo later and the fireo will do the same performance at 4 times the fuel useage… If you get my meaning.

Intel will be fast for sure, not fast enough to justify for me, and it will want nearly its own sub station to supply its power.

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If you can wait and you want to utilize gen4 or gen5 PCIe (for those GPUs in particular), I would wait it out a bit.

However, if you don’t need mondo CPU performance and are fine with gen3 PCIe, I’d grab X299 for cheap to have a solution now.

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Currently using a TR PRO 3945 for work + 10900X as a daily driver, both are nice but would like another system to play with and what not.

Sapphire Rapids is launching to the public H2’22 … allegedly. Rumors are that your favorite hyperscaler probably already ran into and fixed a bunch of microcode and silicon bugs - might be a good fit for you given your ML related proclivity.

X299 would have the maturity factor and some bigg cost shavings
Any discrepancy, between PCIe 3.0 vs 4.0, is nearly nill [regarding GPU interactions]
May be cutting tight on lane divvying [2x16 + 2x8] and granted you run an M.2 on PCH
… As long as the mainboard has suitable data slotting, for that kinda peripheral needs
[Likely would need to be 3x16 + 1x8 physical slots or 4x16 physical slots]

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You could look at first gen TR as well as some of those are literally dirt cheap… I saw 16C 1950x going for $230 lol… so unless you need the single thread performance specifically. Those platforms can be found cheaper than everything else and they have some better power usage figures.
You could also buy a Ryzen 5000 Pro series CPU and then just get a motherboard for your old 3945WX and save even more money.

Hm that’s true seen plenty 1920x/50x Bundles on eBay UK for under 300/400 depending on what one I pick, could be something I look into forgot about 1st gen TR honestly…

EDIT: found a 1950x + MSI Creation X399 + 16Gb ram bundle for £445 might be something I pick up as it’s a bundle for the price of a used 10980xe

sTR4, seems to [still] have inverse problem, compared to x299
The processors can be had for cheap [esp. OG], but mainboards are a bit PRICEY
Ultimately a matter of weighing out the odds, between the two(2) series

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Yea, exactly. The entire platform can be had for cheap! If you are looking for a lot of PCI-E lanes and quad channel memory on the cheap, it is hard to beat first gen TR while still having a semi-modern platform.
As you mentioned the entire platform can be had for the price of a 10980XE.

I just went through this for a build a couple months ago and ended up building a system around 1st gen EPYC for peanuts (for server use, but was originally looking at Intel or Zen2 server stuff).

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I’d like to go epyc but never did and went the icelake route for home server since I feel iffy about used epyc mainly since Vendor locked CPUs.

Once I get paid on the 13th I’ll probably grab the 1950x bundle if I can and shove a few GPUs and nvme in it and run it as a AI/Research box I can have rather than using both my work and personal desktop for that and be able to separate my workloads more

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That is awesome.
For me I went EPYC with cheap stuff from ebay. I also have a EPYC Rackmount 7402P server that I bought for $1600 on a sale from HP. Basically paid less for the barebones rackmount w/ 64GB Ram & 7402p CPU than the CPU cost at the time.
I use that as my main box these days for my hosting company (although I am mainly hosting my own stuff at this moment).

I built the other EPYC system for an indexing project and was able to put it all together for around $800 through some careful picking sales. I wanted TR but at the time I couldn’t find a cooler that would work with the case I was using in a rackmount form factor unless it was 4U and I Couldn’t spare that much space.

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