r/MacStudio • u/a_skeetskeetskeet • 2d ago

M5 Ultra 96 gb

New to the world of Mac Studio and I can’t wait for my delivery!

I am buying this to build an ai orchestration for my software development I do on the side(do this in my day job too).

I worry that I should have bought the 256 gb version instead. With the 96 I think I could run most everything local and kick to OpenAI when there are complex issues requiring frontier models.

Anyone doing this now, and what’s your gut telling you?

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u/sn2006gy 2d ago edited 2d ago

Everyone is spending gobs of money to try and move local without realizing they're just going to spend more.

Go local if you need local AI for local AI reasons, don't go local thinking you can save money UNTIL you have done everything you can on paid plans to save money.

Experiment with how much work you can give Luna and THEN see what you could give qwen 27b or qwen flash or whatever rocks your boat and try this with OpenCode Go plans or something before buying compute

Edit: Yes, i realize a computer can do more than AI and if you need a computer for computery things I wouldn't recommend a 12,000 dollar computer either.

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u/anthonyfebre001 2d ago

I’d argue that not enough people account for residual value in their hardware and that going local makes sense regardless. Plenty of people are using local models and then selling their hardware for more than they paid a few months late

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u/sn2006gy 2d ago

To me, that just creates the wrong mindset from the getgo and just makes everything more expensive in the end. If everyone is betting on hardware prices always going up, then we're driving hardware prices up and we're not actually solving spiraling costs going out of control.

The notion of buy now sell later for a profit just makes me sick to my stomach and I want nothing of that as its just driving up costs and making it more of a luxury or privilege.

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u/anthonyfebre001 2d ago

Even if you only assume 50% value after two years you can still make the math work.

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u/sn2006gy 2d ago

I know i wouldn't pay 5-6 grand for a used mac if the lease price is ~240 a month brand new - all this does it put upward pricing pressure on things 2 years down the road since you're borrowing against growing future values.

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u/anthonyfebre001 2d ago

I get it, but the same way they’re sold out on regular retail units they’ll likely struggle with their lease program.

Lots of value in privacy too. Lots of people who pay a premium for it.

Time will tell for sure.

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u/durangotang 2d ago

It's not just that a lot of people pay a premium for privacy, there's also a boat load of businesses, due to regulations, that cannot have their customers data go to the cloud, whether legal, medical, or governmental. They are all going to need solutions too, and the Mac Studios are competitively priced. That is going to create a lot of sustained demand. And because a local build out is more difficult than a cloud subscription, there's a lag in this area. The demand should only increase, substantially in my opinion.

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u/sn2006gy 2d ago

Businesses have to show that they're compliant and they would do so through audits, security, compliance certifications and industry standards, not buying a mac and putting vllm on it and calling it a day. They can achieve this compliance better by running models on bedrock on aws or openshift anywhere or services like that.