I’m running modest setup using a mistral model (24B) on a 9070 (AMD) and 32gb of ram. $1800 machine at the time I built it. It ultimately boils down to what you want to do with it. For me, it’s basically a drafting tool. I use it to break through writer’s block, iterate, or just throw out some ideas. Sometimes summarize but that can be hit or misss.

I don’t need the latest and greatest and I fine tuned LM studio enough that I get acceptable results in 30 to 90 seconds that help me keep moving ahead. I am not a software engineer, I am definitely not as much of a “coder” as the average person on HN. So if I can do it for less than $2000, I bet a lot of (smarter/experience coding) people could see great results for $5000.

You can get an M3 ultra Mac studio with 96gb ram for $4000. If you’re willing to go up to $6k it’s 256gb. Wayyyyy more firepower than my setup. I imagine plenty powerful for a lot of people.