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Thomas Newkirk

IT manager in Dayton, Ohio; editor of Vetted Consumer. I aggregate owner reports, lab tests and primary sources; numbers measured on my own Mac mini are labeled first-party. Non-commercial site.

Your Coral and Hailo TPU Can't Run an LLM. Here's Why (and What Hailo-10 Changed)
July 4, 2026

Your Coral and Hailo TPU Can't Run an LLM. Here's Why (and What Hailo-10 Changed)

Edge AI & Accelerators
Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB) Buyer's Guide: A $120 Local-AI and Self-Hosting Machine
July 3, 2026

Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB) Buyer's Guide: A $120 Local-AI and Self-Hosting Machine

Edge AI & Accelerators
Unified Memory, Explained: Why Mini PCs Can Run 70B Models a Big GPU Can't (and Where They Slow Down)
July 2, 2026

Unified Memory, Explained: Why Mini PCs Can Run 70B Models a Big GPU Can't (and Where They Slow Down)

AI Mini PCs & Servers
Three Mini PCs, One 70B Model: What Clustering Intel's New NUCs Can (and Can't) Do
July 1, 2026

Three Mini PCs, One 70B Model: What Clustering Intel's New NUCs Can (and Can't) Do

AI Mini PCs & Servers
Bandwidth, Not TFLOPS: What Sets Your Local LLM Speed (and Why the Newest Card Isn't Always Fastest)
June 30, 2026

Bandwidth, Not TFLOPS: What Sets Your Local LLM Speed (and Why the Newest Card Isn't Always Fastest)

GPUs for Local LLM
GPT-5.6 is here, and you can't run it. Here's what you can run instead.
June 29, 2026

GPT-5.6 is here, and you can't run it. Here's what you can run instead.

Open Models
Qwen-AgentWorld-35B-A3B: a local 'world model' you can run at home
June 26, 2026

Qwen-AgentWorld-35B-A3B: a local 'world model' you can run at home

Open Models
MiniMax M3: The First Open-Weight Multimodal Frontier Model (and the License Catch)
June 25, 2026

MiniMax M3: The First Open-Weight Multimodal Frontier Model (and the License Catch)

Open Models
Serving a Local LLM as an API: From Ollama's Endpoint to vLLM Throughput (and When to Rent Instead)
June 21, 2026

Serving a Local LLM as an API: From Ollama's Endpoint to vLLM Throughput (and When to Rent Instead)

Software & Tools
Three RTX 3060s vs One RTX 3090 for Local AI: What a $1,500 Build Actually Measured
June 21, 2026

Three RTX 3060s vs One RTX 3090 for Local AI: What a $1,500 Build Actually Measured

GPUs for Local LLM
Qwen3-30B-A3B: The Open Model Most People Should Actually Run
June 20, 2026

Qwen3-30B-A3B: The Open Model Most People Should Actually Run

Open Models
Mac mini M4 Pro Buyer's Guide: Do You Actually Need the Pro?
June 20, 2026

Mac mini M4 Pro Buyer's Guide: Do You Actually Need the Pro?

AI Mini PCs & Servers
RAG on a Local LLM, Explained: Give Your Model Your Documents Without Drowning in Context
June 19, 2026

RAG on a Local LLM, Explained: Give Your Model Your Documents Without Drowning in Context

Software & Tools
GLM-5.2: The Most Powerful Open-Weight Model Yet, and the Brutal Reality of Running It Locally
June 18, 2026

GLM-5.2: The Most Powerful Open-Weight Model Yet, and the Brutal Reality of Running It Locally

Open Models
Beelink SER10 Max (Ryzen AI 9 HX 470): It “Caught” the M4 Pro, But Local-AI Buyers Should Read the Fine Print
June 18, 2026

Beelink SER10 Max (Ryzen AI 9 HX 470): It “Caught” the M4 Pro, But Local-AI Buyers Should Read the Fine Print

AI Mini PCs & Servers
Prompt Processing vs Generation: Why Your Box Is Fast at One and Slow at the Other
June 17, 2026

Prompt Processing vs Generation: Why Your Box Is Fast at One and Slow at the Other

Software & Tools
The KV Cache, Explained: Why Long Context Eats Your VRAM (and How to Fit More)
June 15, 2026

The KV Cache, Explained: Why Long Context Eats Your VRAM (and How to Fit More)

Software & Tools
The Local-LLM Hardware Cheat-Sheet: Which Box Runs Which Model
June 15, 2026

The Local-LLM Hardware Cheat-Sheet: Which Box Runs Which Model

GPUs for Local LLM
The Used RTX 3090 in 2026: Why a Five-Year-Old GPU Is Still Local AI's Best Deal
June 14, 2026

The Used RTX 3090 in 2026: Why a Five-Year-Old GPU Is Still Local AI's Best Deal

GPUs for Local LLM
How Much VRAM Do You Actually Need to Run a 70B Model Locally?
June 13, 2026

How Much VRAM Do You Actually Need to Run a 70B Model Locally?

Software & Tools
Ollama vs LM Studio vs llama.cpp: Which Local LLM Runtime Should You Actually Use?
June 12, 2026

Ollama vs LM Studio vs llama.cpp: Which Local LLM Runtime Should You Actually Use?

Software & Tools
Mixture-of-Experts (MoE), Explained: Why “Active Parameters” Decide What Runs on Your Machine
June 11, 2026

Mixture-of-Experts (MoE), Explained: Why “Active Parameters” Decide What Runs on Your Machine

Software & Tools
Your Local AI Model Folder Is a Mess: Taming a Multi-Terabyte Model Hoard on Apple Silicon
June 11, 2026

Your Local AI Model Folder Is a Mess: Taming a Multi-Terabyte Model Hoard on Apple Silicon

Unified-Memory AI
Mac Studio M3 Ultra vs DGX Spark for Local LLMs: What Owners of Both Measured
June 10, 2026

Mac Studio M3 Ultra vs DGX Spark for Local LLMs: What Owners of Both Measured

Unified-Memory AI
RTX 5090: A 32GB AI Powerhouse, or an Expensive Way to Game?
June 9, 2026

RTX 5090: A 32GB AI Powerhouse, or an Expensive Way to Game?

GPUs for Local LLM
RX 9060 XT 16GB Buyer's Guide: The Budget Value Champ (Buy the 16GB)
June 8, 2026

RX 9060 XT 16GB Buyer's Guide: The Budget Value Champ (Buy the 16GB)

GPUs for Local LLM
Why Everything Got More Expensive: The Memory Crisis, Explained (via Dave2D)
June 6, 2026

Why Everything Got More Expensive: The Memory Crisis, Explained (via Dave2D)

News
Strix Halo vs DGX Spark: Running 70B Locally, According to People Who Own Both
June 6, 2026

Strix Halo vs DGX Spark: Running 70B Locally, According to People Who Own Both

Unified-Memory AI
GGUF vs GPTQ vs AWQ: The Plain-English Guide to LLM Quantization (and Which One to Pick)
June 6, 2026

GGUF vs GPTQ vs AWQ: The Plain-English Guide to LLM Quantization (and Which One to Pick)

Software & Tools
Mac Studio M3 Ultra: The Local-AI Workhorse, Buy Now or Wait for M5?
June 6, 2026

Mac Studio M3 Ultra: The Local-AI Workhorse, Buy Now or Wait for M5?

Unified-Memory AI
Is the RTX Spark a 'Marketing Trap'? The Skeptic's Case (and What Owners Say)
June 5, 2026

Is the RTX Spark a 'Marketing Trap'? The Skeptic's Case (and What Owners Say)

Unified-Memory AI
Panther Lake's First Mini PC: Wendell Tests the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ (and What Owners Think)
June 5, 2026

Panther Lake's First Mini PC: Wendell Tests the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ (and What Owners Think)

AI Mini PCs & Servers
Framework Desktop Buyer's Guide: The Repairable Strix Halo Box That Runs 70B Models
June 5, 2026

Framework Desktop Buyer's Guide: The Repairable Strix Halo Box That Runs 70B Models

Unified-Memory AI
GMKtec EVO-X2 Guide: The 128GB Mini PC That Runs 70B Models Locally
June 5, 2026

GMKtec EVO-X2 Guide: The 128GB Mini PC That Runs 70B Models Locally

Unified-Memory AI
NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super: The $249 Way Into Edge AI
June 5, 2026

NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super: The $249 Way Into Edge AI

Edge AI & Accelerators
Mac mini M4 Buyer's Guide: Is Apple's $599 Mini the Best-Value Mac?
June 5, 2026

Mac mini M4 Buyer's Guide: Is Apple's $599 Mini the Best-Value Mac?

AI Mini PCs & Servers
RTX 5090 vs RTX Pro 6000 for AI: A Benchmark Deep-Dive (and Why VRAM Wins)
June 5, 2026

RTX 5090 vs RTX Pro 6000 for AI: A Benchmark Deep-Dive (and Why VRAM Wins)

GPUs for Local LLM
A Top Reviewer Put the Mac Studio M4 Max to the Test, Here's Who Should Actually Buy It
June 5, 2026

A Top Reviewer Put the Mac Studio M4 Max to the Test, Here's Who Should Actually Buy It

Unified-Memory AI
NVIDIA's RTX Spark Puts DGX-Class AI Silicon in a Laptop, Should You Wait?
June 5, 2026

NVIDIA's RTX Spark Puts DGX-Class AI Silicon in a Laptop, Should You Wait?

Unified-Memory AI
The NVIDIA DGX Spark, According to the People Who Own One
June 3, 2026

The NVIDIA DGX Spark, According to the People Who Own One

Unified-Memory AI

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