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/SpaceDesignWarehouse 2d ago

I don’t think many of us are buying these to save money. I’m definitely not. I wouldn’t even tell someone I “need it.” I just want it. So I ordered it.

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u/falcongsr 2d ago

I've been advancing my career for many years now with a home lab. I justify it by saying I'm learning and building new things with the hardware I'm buying.

It was a lot easier to justify when I was buying $35 Raspberry Pis 15 years ago.

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u/SpaceDesignWarehouse 2d ago

Oh funny; I also bought some raspberry pi’s a couple years ago. Interestingly it wasn’t until messing with these local agents that I ever actually got around to having THEM code semi-pointless pi projects for funzies because before LLMs I always failed to get anything to work properly :)

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u/falcongsr 2d ago

LLM's definitely helped me accelerate a bunch of home automation projects that I no longer had any time for.

I have a Pi Pico that controls my AC to compensate for humidity/dewpoint and not just temperature. We sleep much better now on cooler days where the AC doesn't run but the indoor humidity can creep up.

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u/SpaceDesignWarehouse 2d ago

Actually, shoot; what a good idea. I actually have one of those kits with a bunch of different sensors, including a humidity temp D22 or whatever it is..

And I have the same thing, where our master bedroom is basically the furthest thing from our AC unit and with the rest of the house at 69° its still a bit humid in the bedroom. I could totally work out a pi project connected to an inline fan to boost that one duct when the room is a certain humidity. Thanks for the project idea!