A lot of opinions in this thread. Without expanding the flamewar, just note limitations with x399 in 2020 and beyond:
It is a solid platform. I run it myself and will for many years. I just wouldn’t buy into it “new” in 2020. If you get a used deal then do that. If not go x570 and ryzen 3000.
Good luck
I generally agree with your points of view.
But like i mentioned in some cases Threadripper could still be a viable option,
for those people who need allot of pci-e epend ability or allot of memory.
Allot of memory could be a benefit with running many vm’s.
But not having the money for like TRx40 or x299 core i9 setups per see.
So i could imagin that @FaunCB was looking at it as an option.
Because certain threadripper 1000 and 2000 cpu’s are relatively cheap.
But of course if it’s all about just running a couple of vrm’s.
And not particularly need all the pci-e lanes per see.
Then it’s just better to go with Ryzen 3000 series indeed.
Because that will be cheaper, better memory compatibility,
and better performing cpu’s after all.
Still for topic starters use case i would like recommend a 3700X or a 3900X then.
In terms of motherboards it just depends on his needs.
Gigabyte x570 Aorus Elite if it has to be cheap, Asrock x570 Taichi or Gigabyte x570 Aorus Master if he want’s more connectivity.
With a honorable mention for the Gigabyte x570 Aorus pro wifi, if it has to be in between.
Also there is a high possibility that am4 might also being EOL.
So in that regards it’s not like future compatibility is guaranteed.
Best thing to do in the end, is just waiting what AMD is going to do next.
This is where i want to leave it at. 
Good luck with your choices.
No chipset fan, well known IOMMU grouping, thats really all I can think of.
? Wouldn’t you… want that?
from a longevity standpoint, no. its a failure point.
some people dont care… idk, up to you man.
to qualify that just incase you’re unaware, x570 supporting pcie 4.0 meant the chipset uses way more power than the previous gen, so theres not many boards with passive chipset cooling.
Power isn’t really an issue. VS my mac pro, this system will be like 800X more efficient lol.
the power difference is like 8 watts, the point is theres a fan on the chipset that you likely wont be able to get a replacement from the manufacturer for in a few years time.
Then I put my own fan on there?
Meh. I’ll look at older boards tho.
did you ever considered an old xeon or something like that?
might be cheap and get all the cores and even some cheap ddr3
Its possible you could but they’re all blower style and like 40mm or something like that
If you dont care thats fine, I’m just letting you know. I have one on my board and I dont care tbh.
I’ve been doing that. I need to modernize.
I personally don’t really see many reasons to go for a previous gen,
300 / 400 series board if you wanne pair it with a Ryzen 3000 cpu,
Especially not Ryzen 7 / 9 chips.
The only boards that support bios flash back from previous gen,
are either the Msi ones, or the more expensive Asus crosshair VII Hero.
For pretty much all the other 300 / 400 series board,
you gonna need either a first or second gen cpu to flash the bios.
Or you need to pay the retailer an additional fee to get it pre flashed.
Because i don´t think they will do it for free, at least not up here.
This unfortunately also counts for the Asrock x470 taichi boards.
To me that is just wasted money, that could be spend else where.
Also the chipset fan on x570 isn’t really that much of a deal,
when just setup right.
iommu groups can change on the fly with bios updates.
So yeah x570 would still be my recommendation.
You absolutely can’t make up the margin between 2.nd gen and 3.rd gen ryzen with overclocking. Per-thread performance / worst case performance is important, and both are very close to peak possible performance out of the box.
Get third gen if you can.
Nobody mentioned it specifically yet so… yeah. You just can’t. Even for things that thread well - if 8 cores gets into spitting distance of a 6 core, the newer 6 core will be more versatile in where it performs well.
Actually fun thing I came into an alottment of servers to sell and have significantly upgraded what I want in terms of an updated desktop.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jkhZWb
Its ended up I have some 32GB DDR4 ECC dimms on hand, so I’ll have 2 of those, I have a cooler, GPU, and a case I can use for a while (I WANT a haf stacker XB but that will be impossible to find tbh), plus a PSU that works that I want to replace with an EVGA SNG3, but might be that SNGA in my original list.
Either way, I’m getting a 3900X.
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