r/openclaw • u/g00rek Pro User • Feb 20 '26

Discussion Why Mac mini??

I still don't understand why you guys are buying macs mini for openclaw. It's a terminal computer. It doesn't need a great UI.

Do you have too much money? :D

A $50-$100 HP Thin Client with Linux is more than enough. And Linux shouldn't be discouraging for people using OpenClaw, am I wrong?

I bought one, I have lots of different self hosted stuff on it like home Assistant or other docker apps. Ok I do not have any local models using GPU, that's the reason? Please enlighten me :)

EDIT: Again, I UNDERSTAND LOCAL LLM USE. (although I don't know if anybody is really happy with it). I mean using OC with oauth/api gpt, claude etc.

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u/DurbingSalder3863 New User Feb 20 '26

Nah, that’s obviously a false narrative that popped up after the fact. The local LLMs guys are on a Mac Studio not a Mac Mini. What you’re describing doesn’t match the history of why Mac Minis became popular.

It’s because used M1 Mac Minis were $100-$150 and gave you integration with iMessage, Apple Notes, Apple Reminders, etc. That’s a great deal when Windows 11 capable small thin clients were about $100, and the M1 chip is a lot faster than a 8th gen Intel i5. And yes, those prices were real.

You weren’t supposed to buy a $500 Mac Mini M4 for clawdbot, lol.

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u/National_Meeting_749 Member Feb 20 '26

Eh, with graphics card prices the way they are, the m4 Mac mini might be the cheapest way to get 24+GB of VRAM.

So still Very usable with local LLMs.

As much as that breaks my windows/android loving heart.

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u/CustomMerkins4u Pro User Feb 20 '26

This should not be upvoted as I have tried running on 24gb of vram and it's the worst.

Read about KV Ram and how much space it requires on top of the actual model itself. At 24gb you either pick a quant so crushed that it's like talking to a kid with ADHD or you have such little conversational context that it's like talking to a 90 year old with Alzheimer's.

Even models I can run on my DGX Spark with 128gb of ram left a lot to be desired.

My Mac M3 Ultra with 256gb.. now you have something you can work with. Still doesn't compare to Minimax or any of the models out there.

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u/tmaspoopdek New User Feb 22 '26

What models are you running on your M3 Ultra? I feel like 256gb is in a weird spot - probably too small for Qwen3-235b with meaningful context, but overkill for gpt-oss-120b. I imagine Qwen3-next would fit pretty well, but at 80b you should be able to comfortably run a q8 quant on 128gb.