System76 Thelio Major Powered By AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series Performance

For those in the market for a high-end Linux workstation for carrying out a lot of code compilation, AI workloads, or other creator or HPC tasks, the new System76 Thelio Major goes on sale today and it's a real winner. I've been trying out the new System76 Thelio Major powered by the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7900 series processors and it delivers excellent Linux performance and all comes nicely working out-of-the-box with their Pop!_OS Linux distribution.

Back in November AMD released the Threadripper 7900 series processors as well as the new Threadripper PRO offerings. All of my Threadripper 7980X Linux testing to date has been a DIY build using the AMD review kit for the Threadripper 7000 series launch. The folks over at System76 have been working on updating their Thelio Major line for the Threadripper 7000 series and recently sent one over ahead of their planned official launch today.

This shouldn't come entirely as a surprise as last week System76 announced that their new Thelio would be featured at the AMD and Gigabyte booths during CES in Las Vegas. The Thelio Major is making use of Gigabyte motherboards and AMD is proud enough of System76's Linux workstation creations to feature them at the Consumer Electronics Show is a great accomplishment for the Colorado company as well as for the Linux ecosystem at large.

Making this all the more exciting on my end is it being the first time in several years checking out a new System76 Thelio design. Back in 2020 I reviewed a System76 Thelio Major that at the time was powered by the just-launched Threadripper 3990X. Besides the upgraded components in the new Thelio Major, System76 has also made some nice design improvements with their built-in-house (Colorado) computer chassis.

In 2022 they overhauled the Thelio design and more improvements in 2023 to allow for a customizable accent panel, subtle improvements to enhance the airflow / cooling, moving over to a replacable rear I/O panel rather than being custom cut into the chassis, and other enhancements to evolve this well-built desktop case.

The new System76 Thelio also adds some front I/O ports to the top of the chassis now with USB 3 Type-A, USB-C, and analog audio jacks.

System76 continues to maintain the Thelio desktop designs as open-source via this GitHub repository for those wanting an "open-source" designed desktop/workstation chassis or making use of that information for enhancing any physical mods to the system.

As far as open-source goes for the system itself, the System76 Thelio Major is using a Gigabyte motherboard with standard (proprietary) firmware. It would be great if they were able to offer Coreboot on their desktops like they do with their laptops in recent years, but alas not there yet. Hopefully it will become feasible once the AMD openSIL effort plays out over the next few years.

This System76 Thelio Major review sample was configured with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X 64-core processor, 4 x 32GB DDR5 Micron MTC20F1045S1RC48BA2 DIMMs, 1TB Crucial T700 CT1000T700SSD5 NVMe SSD, and AMD Radeon PRO W7900 graphics. System76 Thelio Major is also available for ordering with the Threadripper 7960X 24-core and Threadripper 7970X 32-core processors, various NVIDIA and AMD Radeon Pro graphics card options, up to 512GB of quad channel DDR5 memory, and numerous storage options.

I/O connectivity is great with the new Thelio Major having 10 Gb and 2.5 Gb LAN support, WiFi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.2, and all other standard connectivity options. The 2.5Gb and 10Gb Ethernet being standard is great as with the likes of the HP Z6 G5 A with Threadripper PRO, there was still 1Gb standard and treating 10Gb as an upgrade. The System76 Thelio Major is being powered by a Thermaltake ToughPower 1000 Watt 80+ Gold power supply.