What computer should you buy to run AI models locally?
Choosing the right computer to run AI models locally depends more on memory and bandwidth than on hardware specs like TOPS, which can be misleading. Devices like the Raspberry Pi or Google Coral often lack sufficient memory for modern LLMs, leading to crashes even with small models. The Apple Mac mini M4 Pro stands out as a practical choice due to its unified memory architecture and support for models up to 70B parameters with compression.
- ▪Running LLMs locally depends heavily on memory and bandwidth, not just TOPS ratings.
- ▪A 7B model requires 4–8 GB RAM, 13B needs 8–16 GB, and 70B needs 32–64 GB with compression.
- ▪The Mac mini M4 Pro supports up to 64 GB unified memory, making it suitable for running large models locally.
- ▪Devices like Raspberry Pi and Coral Dev Board lack sufficient memory for modern LLMs despite high TOPS.
- ▪The Arduino Ventuno Q has 16 GB RAM and 40 TOPS but is still limited by memory for larger models.
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What computer should you buy to run AI models locally?When choosing a mini computer to run LLMs locally, it can be confusing because hardware specifications use TOPS as an indicator. But this number only tells part of the story.Federico CargneluttiApr 30, 2026ShareThe new Arduino Ventuno Q (Photo: Arduino)I got into hardware almost by accident while working on a side project. The idea was to build a small device and connect it to my home network so it could run AI agents with OpenClaw and stay in the background doing useful things, nothing complicated.
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