[layoric]

I dunno, I still think the 2011-v3 platform that these Xeons can run in is still a great setup for a homelab. A bit power hungry but if you can build a dual core workstation with 36 cores, and 256GB ram for <$1000, that is a solid server. Sure, a bit more power hungry, but that would still make for a hell of an app/db server. That's basically an m4.16xlarge, same CPU generation, platform etc, (yes, without all the surrounding infra) that will cost you something like $0.10 per hour worth of energy to run.

Take the Dell T7910 for example (I use one of these for my homelab), you can pick up a basic one with low end CPU/RAM for sometimes as little as $300. Dumping all these 18 core E5s and DDR4 ECC on the market should make it even cheaper to spec out. Currently they go for about $100-150 each on the CPUs, and ~$150-200 for the RAM. Not bad IMO.