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Does that remain true in the RAMpocalypse?
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A PS5 is $600. This random mini PC with the same amount of RAM is $385. https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-eq14-n150

I'm sure someone will point out some spec that's better on the PS5, but the extra $200 will make up the difference if you spend more time looking than the 15 seconds I just did.

(or if you just build a PC from parts yourself)

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>I'm sure someone will point out some spec that's better on the PS5

They're not even in the same ballpark - the PS5 is more than an order of magnitude better in GPU performance.

Despite how much it does matter, RAM is not the only thing you need for running LLMs - that N150 is not going to run anything but really tiny models at any sort of reasonable speed - certainly nothing that approaches using all of its ram. The GPU in the PS5 is ~25x faster. And if you're running games the RAM doesn't really affect performance at all once you have "enough" for a given game.

You're right that you probably could build something quite a bit faster than a PS5 for the same price though - if you can build/find everything but the GPU for ~250 USD and slap a 16gb 9060xt (~25tflops @32bit compared to the PS5 gpus ~10tflops @32bit) in it for another ~350 USD it should theoretically do a better job - the GPU in the PS5 was on par with mid-high end PC GPUs on launch, but that was like 5 years ago.

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Where are you getting a 16gb 9060xt in 2026 for $350? Unless you mean used, seems like the floor is $500
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N150 isn't really what you'd want to use for a gaming machine. At a budget of mid $300s - the best (new) Mini PC you're going to find right now is probably this unit[1] with a Ryzen 7 7735U (680M iGPU) and 16GB RAM. Not the most powerful device - but I have a similar one I use to play emulator games, indie games on steam - throw Steam OS on it and it's a great living room device. Expand that budget to $530 and you can get this guy[2] with a Ryzen 7 255 (780M iGPU) - which will play modern games (on low settings for many).

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GGM6BKN9 [2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FX2TV3HX

Shameless plug - I methodically rank the best possible Mini PC deals on https://MiniPCs.zip for this exact purpose.

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Even at the current increased prices - you can build a PC with a better spec and with a 4K Blu ray drive for £569? I'd be curious how.
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