I agree with the fact that Xeon is overpriced and not many apps can fully take advantage of it. However it’s a more honest comparison if you’re doing a proper comparison with the Mac Pro. HP Z8 would be a valid comparison since it’s using Xeon, ECC and meant to be a turn key solution without having to build one yourself.
Why Xeon? It is most performance/cost inefficient option.
For price slightly more than of cheapest shitty Mac Pro you can make pair of top 16-core AMD systems in Thermaltake Core W200 CA interconnected by Infiniband. Later just upgrade to pair of 32 (current) or 64 (next gen) core CPUs, all else will remain.
If you so like can install ECC RAM in TR4 board, it is supported.
If you are not in corporation (or big editing team) or running server 24/7 I see no point in EEC memory.
A proper comparison would be with a Xeon processor and ECC RAM. Something from HP Z8 would be a better comparison.
OK, lets make standard ATX system that similar, but more powerful and really upgradable
Total - $1830, can add pair of cheaper 1TB NVMe SSDs to make it $2000.
All prices US, Newegg or B&H.
Such system will be whisper quiet, extremely upgradable (up to 420+420+360 radiators), can add second PSU, MB really bear 4x GPUs. Does not have Thundebolt by default (can add PCIe card if you so like), but has USB 3.1 Gen 2 and 10Bit network (+2 other network cards).
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