The GIGABYTE GA-AB350M-Gaming 3 is the cheapest Ryzen board I can find at NewEgg and costs only $94.99 by comparsion.
Therefore, there's an obvious savings of $124. Although, you can easily spend $189.99 or more on a higher-end Ryzen board given NewEgg's offerings.
So while there is a discrepancy, it's not massive.
But I agree that a $200 - $400 difference may not be substantial for a workstation in heavy use. Personally, I do still have concerns about availability over the life of the CPU. I currently have an X79 and was looking to replace the motherboard in its 2nd year of ownership. eBay is really the only option available and with a scarce 2nd-hand market, the boards don't depreciate much. It's gotten better over time, but I was looking at paying $400+ for a used motherboard. I decided to just deal with the quirks of my current one. The X299 is early in its lifecycle, of course, so I'd hope availability for a few years.
Agreed.
> The X299 is early in its lifecycle, of course, so I'd hope availability for a few years.
Same, here. I've seen ASRock Intel boards vanish from the market only a year after they debut.
It's disturbing. And moreover, it's detrimental to the lifetime of the board as driver and BIOS updates cease.
Hopefully this chipset and socket will last a bit longer.