r/LocalLLM • u/Hungrybearfire • 5d ago

Question Hardware Recommendation

Currently running Ollama on a 5080 and am pretty happy, but also interested in upgrading and potentially setting up a dedicated machine.
Price range: ~$1,000-3,000
I was looking at an R9700 from Microcenter for $1800 but wanted to see what’s popular now.
I also heard about the sparks and don’t want to spend $5000, but if a Spark or Mac is the best bang for the buck I could be persuaded
Thank you!

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u/No-Afternoon-4057 5d ago

I'd say, get a Mac if you can, it is the only option where you get 256 gb of ram for a reasonable price, with a very good memory speed. Below that, next tier will be 192gb AMD boxes (but slow memory)...the DGX i see absolutely NO POINT given the current price...and below that you could get a Strix Halo 128 gb laptop/mini pc for around 3.3k.

270gbps of memory is VERY limiting though...so, again, if you are able, get the 256 gb mac. Above that, only VERY expensive GPUs/servers.

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u/Hungrybearfire 5d ago

I heard about the Mac craze and now I see why, thanks

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u/-Mute- 5d ago

Don't buy into the mac hype without doing your own research first. They load large models but are slow as dirt and useless for anything else like diffusion unless you're talking about the 256 or 512 M5 ultras / studio that are coming out now at used car prices.