Well the motherboard and CPU can be had for $1450. As they're built around standard cases and power supplies and storage, many folks like me will have those already - far less costly than buying the same from Apple if you don't. Spend what you want on ram, unlike with Apple, you can upgrade it any time.
Can't reuse my old parts on a brand new Mac, or upgrade it later if I find I need more. Lock-in is rough.
Note that this is a "QS" CPU, very likely B0 stepping ES by posts elsewhere. A new one of those is around 3k USD alone. The 16-core can be had for around $1200 however and the board for $780.
12x32=384 GB of RAM seems to be about $1400 right now. Going for less capacity don't save that much, unlike the insanely marked up apple memory. And then you need the CPU heatsink for $130.
