A deep micro-ATX ASRock motherboard bundle and a 64-core Ampere Altra CPU have popped up on Newegg for just $1,500. The ASRock ALTRAD8UD-1L2T motherboard supports the included Altra Q64-22 CPU and the much higher-end Altra Max lineup that ranges from 96 to 128 cores.
Despite coming in the 10-inch wide and long micro-ATX form factor, the ALTRAD8UD-1L2T motherboard is exceptionally rich in features. It has eight memory slots that support 256GB sticks of DDR4-3200 RAM, four PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, two NVMe slots with PCIe 4.0, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, to name the highlights. The lack of DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support does mean this motherboard isn't exactly cutting-edge, but it's not obsolete either.
The Q64-22 CPU included in the bundle is a 64-core model, which is somewhat in the middle of the pack for Ampere's first-generation Altra CPUs. It's unclear when Ampere launched the Q64-22, as it wasn't part of the initial launch in 2020. Being based on 2020 hardware, the Q64-22 isn't exactly a spring chicken anymore, and it's seemingly the lowest-end 64-core CPU Ampere has on offer.
However, why bother with the Q64-22 when you could upgrade to one of Ampere's Altra Max CPUs with up to 128 cores? These second-generation chips from 2021 offer much higher multi-threaded performance, great bang for buck per core, and are primarily intended for cloud workloads. They're very similar to AMD's Zen 4c-based Bergamo chips, which also come with 128 cores and are ostensibly made to appeal to cloud servers and data centers.
Of course, Altra Max chips are also getting a little old at this point, and since they only just about matched 64-core Epyc Milan CPUs back in 2021, we can probably assume AMD's modern 96-core Epyc Genoa and 128-core Epyc Bergamo server CPUs are much faster. Intel's 64-core Emerald Rapids chips are also likely to be more than a match for even 128-core Altra Max CPUs, especially in AI workloads. Ampere's own 192-core AmpereOne CPU is also set to smoke Altra Max.
The big question is whether getting this ASRock motherboard and Ampere CPU bundle is even worth it. It's hard to say how much an ALTRAD8UD-1L2T motherboard and a Q64-22 would cost individually since these devices aren't sold at retail. However, the MSRP of the slightly higher-end Q64-24 in 2020 was $3,090, with the bundle costing just half of that. At $1,500, the bundle is affordable for even end-users, but that doesn't include the cost of memory, storage, or GPU costs.
