If intending to run AI locally, you need at least 32G memory (and that’s for the smallest model).
First to say get a Mac, mac...
This is easy. Buy an iMac. Around $1300 before tax at Costco, for example. Take a look.
Buy an Apple.
And you are very right about INTC. They are a mess.
This may sound silly, but years ago I used to build my own.
Go to newegg, pick out a case, motherboard, processor, power supply and screw it together.
Load your operating system and software.
Probably get a fantastic computer for pennies on the dollar.
Thoughts?
why would someone with your experience level need to ask a question like this to a group of strangers?
“I can afford about $1700 or so after taxes.”
—
My father would have gotten at least 12 good used cars for that amount of $.
Only comment on your question, though - general advice to anyone: get a couple external SSD drives, also, to keep anything of importance (backup, backup). Don’t depend on your internal drive - or worse, throwing your info up into the cloud - for that.
I am thoroughly impressed with Lenovo. Just recently acquired a small thinkpad laptop. It doesn’t have a disk drive but I can live without one. It is FAST.
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U w/ Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx × 4
5.7 GiB Ram.
256.1 GB hard drive (think it is solid state)
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso graphics card.
Pretty impressive for it’s small size. And even though it doesn’t have much ram it actually runs 3D games very well because of the graphics card I guess. And... It is Linux friendly for switching to Linux like I did right away.
So thumbs up for Lenovo.
I've had a lot of success with Microsoft Surface Pro laptops and 2-in-1 tablets.
You can use one with the smaller 13" screen since you don't need the large screen size if you're using separate monitors. (You will need a Surface dock to connect one to the dual monitors).
Most are 16GB but they do go up to 64GB.
If you or anyone reading this decides the ARE willing to build their own PC here’s a decent guide:
https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/best-pc-builds-gaming
Some are Intel based, some are AMD. You can always mix and match.
If you must have windows then build your own. Use https://pcpartpicker.com/ to choose what you need.
After years of trouble with PCs and updates, my MacBook Air was heavenly.
11 years on my first....perfect for business, accounting, graphics, entertainment. (never did gaming) . Finally replaced with another and astounded again.
The Apple peeps seemed much more intuitive as to needs.
BTW - I built a system about a year ago using an Intel i7-13700K raptor lake CPU, 64GB mem and an RTX4080, no problems.
Based on this pre-built gaming unit you are on target price wise. Two day shipping.
https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Prebuilt-Gaming-PC-GLX-99615
I really like mine.
Can only recommend avoiding Dell
(warranty service sent computer back smashed into pieces, shipping crate was intact so it wasn’t broken up in transit)
I have been happy with my ASUS ASUS - TUF Gaming A16 16” 165Hz Gaming Laptop FHD-AMD Ryzen 7. I put 64 GB of high speed RAM in it and a 2 TB Samsung 990 PRO SERIES SSD. With Black Friday discounts last year, it all came to $1050. The battery is bigger than most, too, and it's rather ruggedized. It has USB 4.0, as well.
I'd look for another ASUS AMD deal.
I just bought an HP Victus 15.6” Gaming Laptop -Mica Silver (AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS/512GB SSD/8GB RAM/GeForce RTX 2050/Win 11) at Bestbuy , I can upgrade the memory and SSD from what I have at home but the reason I bought it is because I got it for about half price and it does what I want it to do ,LOL
Haven't said if you need a case yet ...