Cutting Back
Yes, we know: This machine is monstrously expensive. So let’s talk about some more affordable alternatives. First up, you can eliminate RGB altogether and cut down to less memory; 32GB is a safe minimum for a system like this, but 64GB kits are also becoming more affordable. Sticking with Corsair, the Vengeance LPX is slightly more basic but a bit cheaper. Alternatively, you could opt for a lower-price brand, like G.Skill.
Making the change from AIO cooling to air cooling is always an option, but sTR4-compatible air coolers aren’t common and tend to be fairly expensive. A more realistic money-saver would be to downgrade the SSD, either to a 3rdgeneration M.2 drive or a 2.5-inch SATA. Depending on how often you need to move large files around, a SATA SSD could be a more sensible and cheaper alternative.
Of course, the big question here is the processor. The more cores, the better, but with SMT and Hyper-Threading becoming the norm, you don’t necessarily have to spring for Threadripper to get your work done. The Ryzen 9 3900X is an excellent 12-core chip, but costs less than a quarter of the 3970X. Really though, any current-gen CPU from AMD or Intel with six cores or more will be at the very least capable of handling heavy data-analysis tasks. Avoiding Threadripper means you can save on your motherboard too.
We didn’t spend too much on our case, but we’d advise against cheaping out on the power supply for a system like this. Cheaper HDDs are an option if you don’t mind lengthy copy times, and if you’re really trying to squeeze every cent we’d recommend going for a case that comes with included fans.