You're still uncertain about Alder Lake.
You're still uncertain about Alder Lake.
So far, I don’t own an Alder Lake system. I have a 5950X and an E3 1280V3 Xeon (Haswell 4c8t 3.6ghz base 4.6ghz boost), which is essentially an i7 4770 non-K. I also possess a 3900XT that doesn’t come with a home setup. I’m evaluating a new machine for long-term, high-capacity, redundant data storage, and fast networking. When considering the Alder Lake configuration, I often think it would suit a low-power, low-maintenance, high-uptime multi-use network storage server—perhaps handling transcoding tasks. However, I’d prefer a few performance cores plus many efficiency cores, or just a handful. It seems Intel is mainly releasing performance-focused models, which isn’t really my interest. I’m weighing a build around the hardware I already have: the 3900XT with 32GB DDR4 and a Vega 64, or going with Alder Lake. Honestly, if a 4p/6+e variant existed, I’d choose it (assuming it’s not too costly), but I think it might be more cost-effective to use what I already have. I don’t plan to upgrade to Ryzen 4/AM5 or 13th-gen processors, so longevity is key for me.
That's a good point! I believe the 3900XT offers stronger Linux compatibility. I'll go with that then.
Considering Alder Lake in an unavailable setup makes sense. Alternatively, constructing a new Ryzen 9 could be a better option.