FWIW Threadrippers go up to 1TB and Threadripper Pro up to 2TB. That's even in the lowest model of each series. (I know this because it happens to be the chip I have. Not saying you shouldn't go for Epyc if it works out better.)
Have you tried running the full R1 model with that? People in sibling comments mention high end EPYCs gor a 10K machine, but I’m curious whether it’s possible to make a 1-2K machine that could still run those big models simply because they fit in RAM.