alt Hacker NewsCurrently the barrier to entry for local models is about $2500. Funny thing is $2500 is about the amount my parents paid for a 166 MHZ machine in 1995.
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My first 'real' machine was a Price Club (now Costco) 386sx for $3800 in late '89, which would be nearly $10k adjusted for inflation. 16 MHz, 1 MB RAM, 40 MB hard disk.
That was bargain basement for that era. IBMs, Compaqs and the like were ~$5k similarly configured, and the first 486s were in the $7-9k area.
Entry level is actually MAC MINI 16GB at <$499, I have models running on M2 MINI 16GB, it's working with small models.
This is very false. My first system was a 3060 which you can buy new for about $300 or used for about $200. If you already have an existing system you can use it, else you can pick up a used PC for about $150. Entry is about $500.
The used model is 9B even with a big context you can easily run it on 16GB. You don't need a $2500 machine for it.
I remember my Dad buying a 386 25MHz a few years earlier for a similar amount.
In 1984 he bought a TRS-80 for almost a thousand dollars. 32kB RAM, around 1 MHz 8 bit CPU.
I bought a Pentium 90 in the late 90's for several thousand dollars. It had the FDIV bug in it.
After experiencing a lifetime of high depreciation in electronics, I'm extremely price sensitive when buying it. I feel that if I wait a few years everything will become much cheaper. Maybe that's not the case with the slow down in Moore's law and the AI datacenter build out.