Mac mini M4 (2024)

You can already buy shuttle pcs with (probably) those specs for $400-$600 (have a look at gmktec). For a console (which Valves sells it like) you will always expect lower prices than equivalent pc prices (for obvious reasons). You can literally get a M4 mac mini with 16 GB shared RAM for $600. Insta

For messing with the largest possible local LLMs, go with the 128GB Framework Desktop. RAM is the most important factor for model size, and having 128GB gives you the headroom to run bigger and more complex models that the 64GB Mac Mini can't handle. While the M4 Mini is efficient, you'll hit a memo

You will need 24GB/512 GB Mini to manually cut code... can't be done for $600 I just installed local Ollama .. llama3 8B model to play with works great on M1 Mini 16GB/512.. But to get serious with local AI I will need at least 64GB /1TB M4 Mini.. very expensive with Macs . Local AI is game changer

Not going to help me with 16gb Mac m4 mini though smh

Actually I forgot about apple offerings. The best mac to get is an old M1 Max Mac studio. The 32Gbs ram + 512GB ssd model is going for $800 on ebay, super close to OP's budget. It will perform much better in inference than the M4 mac mini because of much higher memory bandwidth (400GB/s vs 120GB/s,