Yup, that’s stabbing yourself in the foot to enthusiasts instantly. Segmentation, even though their silde presentation makes a point about platform unity and simplification. Then what about unity and simplification with your TRX40 platform?
Need 10-14 cores and 48 lanes with good IPC? It’s still X299. This cements my 10920X purchase. (Threadripper 2000 died along with X399)
Honestly it’s not a big deal since it’s targeted audience can absolutely afford the OEM make up
Yeah, but people waiting for that 12 and 16 core are still stuck with Threadripper 2000 in the retail space. They got double screwed, first with no 12 and 16 core parts with 64 lanes for Zen2, then getting it, but it being incompatible with their socket and only available through OEMs.
To add insult to injury, X399 boards are declared by Canadian brick and mortar retailers to be discontinued.
The other option - for 12 or 16 cores - is to go EPYC, and just sacrifice the clock speeds…
Motherboards in the $400-$600 range [ASRockRack, SuperMicro or Tyan], and 12 to 16 core EPYCs are ~$700 to $950
e.g. from Prowess Computing
EPYC 7272 2.6GHz 12-Core - $775.00
3.2GHz Max Turbo, 6MB L2 Cache / 64MB L3 Cache, 120 Watt TDP
EPYC 7282 2.0GHz 16-Core - $800.00
3.2GHz Max Turbo, 8MB L2 Cache / 64MB L3 Cache, 120 Watt TDP
EPYC 7302P 3.0GHz 16-Core - $920.00
3.3GHz Max Turbo, 8MB L2 Cache / 128GB L3 Cache, 155 Watt TDP
Tyan Tomcat HX S8030 S8030GM2NE SoC ATX - $450.00
2x 1GbE, IPMI, 5x PCIe 4.0, 7002 Series Support
Picked up my S8030 motherboard from avadirect for ~$420 after shipping.
Also picked up my 7302 for $700 off of eBay.
I take back what I said about Threadripper non-pro being obsoleted. What we might see is when the Zen3 Threadrippers appear, the Zen2 Threadrippers will remain but heavily discounted, but still with no 12 and 16 core options.
It’s clear they want more segmentation, so we’ll have Zen2 Threadripper, Zen3 Threadripper, and Zen 2 and 3 Threadripper PRO.
Honestly, if this is how it’s being sold, they should remove the “X” from the Threadripper PRO names. X means Enthusiast.
Hard to believe the enthusiast / bespoke market is so large and profitable that AMD can neglect the enterprise market (or the biz market really). I tried to buy business class ryzen desktops and it was so difficult I gave up.
Can’t get a 3500 or 3700 in an Optiplex or Pro / Elitedesk, just Intel. Maybe Lenovo but their potential connections to “the party” worry me for the business my enterprise is in.
Is that not entirely the OEMs decision? AMD has maintained a ‘PRO’ variant of their chips for the exact markets you’re expecting to find them. The OEM ultimately decides what deal they take and which chips they buy.
I can see this line as a very useful sink for ever more profitable and high margin Zen2 fast chips for when the Zen3 comes out. Retail users will hoover up the Zen3 AM4 fast units until production can ramp up enough to supply a fast Zen3 TR.
Slower, energy efficient Zen3s obviously go to the Epyc stable.
I am miffed about not getting this as a self-build. The Lenovo mobo looks lame, to be honest, but it may have all manner of non slot PCIe in terms of OCUlink etc.
It makes sense to me. AMD / Lenovo get to release qualified professional workstations that crush intel. They have a distinct advantage at the moment.
New Ryzen and TR chips will be coming out and will likely be faster soon enough and most build your own workstation users will not need the 128 lanes or 2TB memory freedom and settle for a faster system with better retail specs than this gen.
AMD could end each cycle with a pro chip once all the bugs are out for a premium to OEM’s. Business’s want proven tech. Enthusiasts want the new stuff.
Like the intel WS chips. OEM’s will most likely sell the Pro chips for a lot so builders can make still make systems. Gamers Nexus said Gigabyte and Asus said they will make boards with this socket.
See, where I see the most success is if System76 partners with AMD as a OEM to bring it to a Thelios system with coreboot. Then coreboot can be user replaced with a less restrictive version of the same thing for more control over the chips.
They can buy the OEM only Gigabyte motherboards and just slap coreboot onto it.
I think it’s more complicated. Maybe AMD doesn’t want to give as generous of margin discounts to OEMs as Intel does, or wants payment up front for inventory versus payment on end-user sale. Could be Intel’s non-compete agreements with big OEMs limit how much business in certain segments they can do with AMD.
AMD seems to be crushing it in the server segment, and there are “business / enterprise” class AMD laptops out there, but desktop and workstations seem something AMD can’t or won’t break into.
One YouTuber indicates the “starting” price on a p620 from Lenovo is going to be $4500 USD, which is insanity. Pricing like that isn’t going to win many sales.
Pretty no name in terms of volume.
Which kinda means they’re gonna be screwed out of this platform and be forced to TRX40.
Eh makes them more money and honestly AMD has done enough we dont really have any right to bitch about small things
If intel had its way we would still be on like 12core on HEDT for 2k
There is a reason System76 doesn’t do EPYC systems though, and it’s the same reason why they can’t get this new platform. They don’t have special bulk order channels for parts designated for OEMs on the Desktop side, only the laptop side with Clevo machines.
Sounds like they dont have faith in the demand of this product to risk it big, also not a ton of ATX sized boards out there.
Kinda leaves people like Torvalds SOL unless they build their own EPYC, or buy a workstation with Threadripper PRO in it.
Or have @wendell build an EPYC system for him.
Not really a ton of those people, hence why there isnt a lot of companies doing that product.
