One would expect that by now buying desktop class computers on shops with a Linux experience would be rather common.
Geekcom devices that it advertises as Linux ready, are actually sold with Windows pre-installed.
I guess they mean WSL ready.
Instead normies get The Year of Linux kernel deployed with all kinds of consumer devices, and The Year of Linux VMs on retail.
"Two gotchas before you click buy"
I really think there could be a score for entropy in playfulness that should differentiate LLM output
Sorry, but this is not even close to "being honest", it's bad math. That calculation assumes you do nothing with the computer other than local inference.
So that gets you 1_892_160_000 tokens per year at full blast.
If you go the openrouter, eh, route, you'd get charged $2 per million tokens (anywhere from $2 to $3.6 per million tokens). So the value you'd get from your machine at 100% utilization is 1892 * $2 = $3784 up to 1892 * $3.6 = $6800)
So yeah, not counting electricity and your time the machine "is worth it".
Isn’t the recommended option going to be dog slow at 256 GB/s.
Wasn‘t that a discounted price?
The M5 Ultra has not been even announced.
This article appears to be predominately or entirely LLM-produced with little to no human review, and contains numerous material and misinforming errors.
It also omits serious contenders that's worth at least comparing, like the DGX Spark.
72 Xeon cores
256GB ECC DDR4
64GB VRAM
$2200 total
I run it on a 20A 240V outlet to make sure the power supply can deliver enough watts, but so far it's working pretty well. The eWaste LLM rig is probably not as good value for money as a new machine, but it gets the job done cheaper (for now).
EDIT: IIRC this approach gets me more VRAM bandwidth than Strix Halo at the cost of less addressable GBs (but a lot more total system RAM), but I figured with CPU offloading that might make up for it?
ALSO EDIT: Note you can get a 128GB Strix Halo motherboard minus power supply, fans, case, etc from Framework for $2200.. that could work if you have some parts lying around.
With the current extreme RAM shortage I deeply regret not buying a 64G MacMini a few months ago.
I bet a zillion people feel the same way.
Those of us on PC land can at least extend them, or exchange the GPU, even if pricey.
Apple has lost the server and workstation market by their own decisions.
- GMKTek EVO-X2: 120GB/s reads, 212GB/s writes
- NVidia DGX Spark 273GB/s
- Mac Mini M4 120GB/s but only $600+
- Mac Mini w/ M4 Pro 273GB/s ($2199 for 64GB)
- Mac Studio M4 Max 410GB/s ($3500 for 128GB)
- Mac Studio M3 Ultra 819GB/s ($5500 for 96GB)
- Macbook Pro 16" with M5 Pro 64GB 307GB/s ($3300)
- Macbook Pro 16" with M5 Max 128GB 460GB/s ($5399)
Sadly, Apple discontinued the 512GB Mac Studio. Mac Studios are a little long in the tooth now and due for an upgrade this year. I suspect that prices will be a lot higher given the RAM prices but we'll see.
znpy•1h ago
The 64gb mac mini is also interesting, if anything because it is very likely to hold most of its value when reselling.
I’m keeping an eye on the next apple hardware refreshes, particularly for mac minis and mac studios.
amelius•1h ago
adityamwagh•58m ago
amelius•49m ago
2ndorderthought•1h ago
walthamstow•1h ago
edot•49m ago
Mac Studio M4 Max with 128gb at $3,699 (if you can find it) would equate to 10 million tokens a day of mixed input-output for over 5 years to break even. At which point that hardware is outdated compared to the SOTA models that will probably still be cheap on hosted platforms.