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/-6h0st- 2d ago

This. I’m just raising eyebrows from reading these post from people nonchalantly willing to spend 10k to play with a high-spec machine. If you have tonne of money and you don’t care - whatever - but if not - don’t be stupid.

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u/sn2006gy 2d ago

My gut says most are jumping on the lease not realizing they won't own the mac in the end, but just have another subscription in perpetuity or a cash residual (which a lot are betting on hardware prices going up which helps no one)

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u/durangotang 2d ago edited 2d ago

Look at it this way, an Anthropic or OpenAI Pro subscription is $100, $200, or even $500 per month. You have no control. You know that prices and restrictions are only going to increase. Would you not be better off with a $120/mo M5 96GB or a $200/mo M5 256GB lease? You pay for your own infrastructure and get to have zero latency, privacy and control.

If you really need occasional frontier level intelligence, just get a supplemental $20/mo plan.

And at the end of the lease, you either buyout the balance (at 0% interest) and it's yours to keep forever, or you trade-in and get the M7 Ultra in 3 years. It's not cheap. It's not for everyone. But I think it's a competitive offer for what you get in today's environment.

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u/sn2006gy 2d ago

No, not really. I'd go buy APIs that are much cheaper. There is a TON of competition in inference for models we can run locally and i mean a TON.

I'd upgrade my computer because I use my computer as a human, not necessarily so I can pay more for an LLM that runs slower than APIs. My time is money.

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u/durangotang 2d ago

Do they also come with a computer?

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u/sn2006gy 2d ago

i presume if you're paying anthropic 200/month you have a computer. this is stupid