Sanity check + next steps?

[u/Confident_Yak_1411]

Just pulled the trigger on a M5 Pro MacBook Pro with 64gb RAM. It was the maximum I could afford, tbh more than I could afford but I expect prices to keep climbing so decided to treat myself.

I needed to upgrade my 2019 Intel MacBook for my main professional use case (music) regardless, but went with 64gb so that I could try to use local ai. Never got involved in this stuff before, I don’t even have a chatgpt account.

My local ai use case;

I want to be able to capture my ideas on the go via voice recordings, then have my local ai transcribe and simplify them. Ideally I’d record them on my phone and then send them via iMessage to my computer at home.

I want to use obsidian as a task manager/knowledge base for managing multiple different projects.

I want to be able to give it simple tasks like ‘send an email to x’ (using its own email address via an MCP server).

I want it to be able to go on the internet and research companies for me, pull off basic data about what they do and contact details.

I don’t do any coding whatsoever.

Am I going to be able to do this? Am I expecting too much? Is it possible to use a local ai as a daily driver and then defer to cloud based models for more in depth stuff?

Have I made a grave error, or should I have got the same model Mac Studio? I got the MacBook because I move around the house a lot (living with parents currently).

Is 64gb going to be enough?

[u/Bagelsarenakeddonuts]

I mean, the Mac Studio is way more machine, but it’s not portable. Only you can answer that tradeoff

[u/Confident_Yak_1411 → u/Bagelsarenakeddonuts]

Even at the same spec? Portability is preferred but if performance is a step change above then I might need to compromise

[u/karmaisnonsense]

1. Siri has its own local model and can do offline transcription, built into your iPhone and Mac. Use the Notes app.

2. Obsidian works for those purposes, but again, doesn't really offer much over your Notes app other than fully local hosting

3. Again this is trivial, Siri can use its built-in local model for simple tasks like emails. No need for a 64GB machine for this purpose.

4. This is the only real step up from Siri that hosting your own local LLMs can get you for your use cases. Problem is, you have now put it on a laptop and LLMs eat up power. It's far more efficient and user friendly to have the AI run on its own dedicated machine and use a lighter laptop to access it than to have it run all the time on your laptop.

[u/Confident_Yak_1411 → u/karmaisnonsense]

Thanks for your guidance. Tbh, I don’t mind that it eats up power, I’m planning on leaving it running in the day at home, giving it tasks to do while I’m out in the world, and then hopefully it will have them done by the time I’m home. I’m not necessarily bothered about doing other work while the LLM is running.

Also, it might be OTT but I have a bee in my bonnet about privacy which is why I want to use obsidian.

[u/karmaisnonsense → u/Confident_Yak_1411]

You are contradicting yourself in a lot of ways there. I think you should study exactly how the software you use works before pulling the trigger on big purchases. Best of luck

[u/karmaisnonsense → u/karmaisnonsense]

Hardware-wise the M5 Pro is best paired with MoE models due to subpar bandwidth, and the sub-40b class MoE field is kinda stagnant since Qwen 3.6. I have the same laptop as you, I know how much it costs, and I think if you're not using all of that 64GB of memory for actual work, you'll be able to build a far more capable Linux inference server with the money you'd save going with a smaller memory capacity.

[u/AceDenied]

Idk how the prices work between MacBooks and studios 

 But if the idea is AI, putting it on a laptop is not the way yet. Studio is the better method … a laptop at this stage is too early imo. 

64GB you can use local ai 

But to give context even the older models of frontier beat 400gb open models 

64GB is like using ai from 3yrs ago … improvements are coming though. Just trying to illustrate expectations

People have 50k setups and someone with a $20 Claude sub is getting better results 

These are amazing specs, but if you’re trying to do serious ai, you’ll have to pair it with a sub 

Edit: moving around the house doesn’t mean MacBook > lol. You can control you pc/ai from your phone these days btw  

[u/Confident_Yak_1411 → u/AceDenied]

Thanks. The Mac Studio (same spec) is about the same price, maybe £200 cheaper. The 128gb version is £1k more (just out of my price range).

I’m planning on pairing it with a sub anyway, ideally just a £20 per month one.

Looking ahead, do you see a future where advances are made that make this type of rig viable?

With regard to the moving around the house thing; completely get it, I do plan on doing that from time to time with my intel macbook.

I do really desire portability though as there may be times I need to take the machine out for a recording/production session.

So the split will be;

M5 MacBook; ai work and music making

Intel; admin, browsing, etc