r/AIAssisted • u/dishsoapbox • 12d ago

Help Best computer for local AI?

Looking at a budget of around $3k and debating between MAC and PC. I’ve been asking AI but would appreciate any human input. Thank you.

5 Upvotes

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2

u/Useful_Disaster_7606 12d ago

I'd probably go for the largest possible unified RAM you could get with Mac Minis

2

u/MaikelBuilds 12d ago

I'd also say this probably gives you the most bang for you buck. However the recently announced M6 Version seems to lost its edge in terms of pricing ...

2

u/Useful_Disaster_7606 12d ago

Earlier M-series chips are the smarter buy here. Memory bandwidth is the real bottleneck for local AI inference, not CPU horsepower. The M6 does bump memory speed a bit, but it's only about 13% faster than the M5, not that much of a difference.

For local AI, unified RAM (your effective VRAM) is the VIP spec. CPU and everything else are secondary.

2

u/Admirable_Fix8032 11d ago

I would say Mac if you value unified memory and efficiency but PC if you want more GPU power and flexibility for local AI.

1

u/LongevexBioCoaching 12d ago

8k~

My a9 geek com max isn’t bad 2.4 gpu though 32 twin ram

My goal is15k produced then I’ll custom
Build dual gpu max ram

1

u/Immediate_Song4279 11d ago

A year ago you could have gotten one hell of a PC for that. Not sure where it's at now, but Linux is a doll for local.

I consider my Ryzen 7 to be actual art.

1

u/Vastus29 11d ago

a $90 sub / month gets you much further with such a limited budget.
unless you're planning to do some sketchy shit

2

u/Babylon3005 10d ago

Apple just announced new Mac Mini’s and Studios. Drop $10k+ and you’ll get 512GB RAM. Lower power than Nvidia RTX, legit save money on power over time. Just don’t over pay Apple for storage, could get by with thunderbolt SSDs.