Miss The HEDT Glory Days? Build a 96-core 12-Channel DDR5 Beast with AMD EPYC
AMD is no longer shipping Ryzen Threadripper CPUs for high-end desktops and is positioning the Ryzen Threadripper Pro for workstations. But now that single-socket motherboards for AMD’s 4th generation EPYC ‘Genoa’ processors are available, rather than settle for the 64-core Threadripper Pro, we’re going for 96-cores and up to 12 channels of DDR5 memory. We recommend choosing a huge system. .
Recent ASRock Racks Introduced several single-socket SP5 motherboards For AMD’s EPYC 9004 series processors ( HardwareLuxx.de), including Deep Micro-ATX GenoaD8UD-2T/X550 and GenoaD24QM3-2L2T/BCM motherboards, which are officially intended for servers, but to build the ultimate battle station with a 96 core CPU and memory load can be used for You can afford the CPU and find a suitable chassis.
ever since ASRock Genoa D8UD-2T/X550 and the Genoa D24QM3-2L2T/BCM Indeed a server motherboard, with 8 or 24 slots for DDR5 memory modules, 4 PCIe 5.0 x16 slots with CXL 1.1 on top, 2 M.2-2280 slots for SSD with PCIe 4.0, etc. Server x4 interface, multiple MCIO connectors supporting PCIe 5.0 or SATA connectivity, 2 or 4 10GbE ports (controlled by Intel X550 or Broadcom BCM57416 chips), 1 GbE connector for management , and Aspeed AST2600 BMC.
Motherboards, on the other hand, lack high-speed USB4 or Thunderbolt 3/4 ports, audio connectors (and a suitable controller), traditional SATA connectors on motherboards, and other features common in desktops and workstations.
In fact, building a workstation with GenoaD8UD-2T/X550 would be very difficult. Because performance-hungry enthusiasts will need to procure an M.2-to-PCIe x16 adapter card to take advantage of his latest SSD with PCIe 5.0 interface. , such as the proper cooling system for his AMD’s EPYC processor in the LGA 6096 package. Also note that the EPYC is not overclocked (even the 96 core monster doesn’t have high clocks) and is supposed to run with DDR5-4800 memory. Platforms have 8 or 12 memories, so this may not be a big issue. A channel that provides sufficient bandwidth.
Building an extreme workstation based on AMD’s 96-core EPYC is expensive and has its peculiarities. The payoff, of course, is core and memory load, and if you need to run a workload that can scale to 96 cores, it might be worth the money and hassle.