That is way more expensive than a 16-core desktop, though. Workstations are a class above consumer-grade desktops and that's reflected in the price.

Talos have as low as 8 core desktop options as well this is just an example of how far you can take FLOSS hardware. Not that I consider a 16 core x86 desktop "consumer-grade" in the first place (speaking as a 5950X owner).

Probably not fit for replacing Grandma's budget PC but then again grandma probably isn't worried about the ARM cross compile performance of their machine running NixOS either.

Okay, now I'm interested :)

(I am worried about the ARM cross compile performance of my machine running NixOS)

Thanks, I was legitimately unaware of this option. That does smash my argument, but I'm not likely to be using a system like that anytime soon due to cost concerns mostly.