Why mac mini instead of something like a raspberry pi? Aren't thede claw things delegating inference to OpenAI, Antropic etc.?

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kator 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Some users are moving to local models, I think, because they want to avoid the agent's cost, or they think it'll be more secure (not). The mac mini has unified memory and can dynamically allocate memory to the GPU by stealing from the general RAM pool so you can run large local LLMs without buying a massive (and expensive) GPU.

	▲	ErneX 29 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I think any of the decent open models that would be useful for this claw frency require way more ram than any Mac Mini you can possibly configure. The whole point of the Mini is that the agent can interact with all your Apple services like reminders, iMessage, iCloud. If you don’t need any just use whatever you already have or get a cheap VPS for example.
	▲	duskdozer 28 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		>they think it'll be more secure (not) for these types of tasks or LLMs in general?

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ErneX 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They recommend a Mac Mini because it’s the cheapest device that can access your Apple reminders and iMessage. If you are into that ecosystem obviously.

If you don’t need any of that then any device or small VPS instance will suffice.

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djfergus 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

A Mac allows it to send iMessage and access the Apple ecosystem.

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ksynwa 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Really? That's it?

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labcomputer 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think the mini is just a better value, all things considered:

First, a 16GB RPi that is in stock and you can actually buy seems to run about $220. Then you need a case, a power supply (they're sensitive, not any USB brick will do), an NVMe. By the time it's all said and done, you're looking at close to $400.

I know HN likes to quote the starting price for the 1GB model and assume that everyone has spare NVMe sticks and RPi cases lying around, but $400 is the realistic price for most users who want to run LLMs.

Second, most of the time you can find Minis on sale for $500 or less. So the price difference is less than $100 for something that comes working out of the box and you don't have to fuss with.

Then you have to consider the ecosystem:

* Accelerated PyTorch works out of the box by simply changing the device from 'cuda' to 'mps'. In the real world, an M5 mini will give you a decent fraction of V100 performance (For reference, M2 Max is about 1/3 the speed of a V100, real-world).

* For less technical users, Ollama just works. It has OpenAI and Anthropic APIs out of the box, so you can point ClaudeCode or OpenCode at it. All of this can be set up from the GUI.

* Apple does a shockingly good job of reducing power consumption, especially idle power consumption. It wouldn't surprise me if a Pi5 has 2x the idle draw of a Mini M5. That matters for a computer running 24/7.

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weikju an hour ago | parent [-]

> In the real world, an M5 mini will give you a decent fraction of V100 performance

In the real world, the M5 Mini is not yet on the market. Check your LLM/LLM facts ;)

	▲	trvz 38 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		An LLM would have got the Markdown list formatting correct.

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18 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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joshstrange 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ehh, not “it” but it’s important if you want an agent to have access to all your “stuff”.

macOS is the only game in town if you want easy access to iMessage, Photos, Reminders, Notes, etc and while Macs are not cheap, the baseline Mac Mini is a great deal. A raspberry Pi is going to run you $100+ when all is said and done and a Mac Mini is $600. So let’s call it. $500 difference. A Mac Mini is infinitely more powerful than a Pi, can run more software, is more useful if you decide to repurpose it, has a higher resale value and is easier to resell, is just more familiar to more people, and it just looks way nicer.

So while iMessage access is very important, I don’t think it comes close to being the only reason, or “it”.

I’d also imagine that it might be easier to have an agent fake being a real person controlling a browser on a Mac verses any Linux-based platform.

Note: I don’t own a Mac Mini nor do I run any Claw-type software currently.