u/Emotional-Ad-552

Asuka seems much more autonomous and self willed than Rei.

Almost like she intentionally does not have a programming (can’t be controlled) since there only ever was meant to be one version of her as apart to Rei who can be reborn multiple times with the memories (backups) she frequently makes.

But weird how the Rei series was programmed to feel affection for the Third Child and How Asuka “naturally“ started liking him (and probably felt jealous over Rei (another cyborg) getting so much affection and attention from shinji in the rebuilds.

Depending on the kind of coding or development work I’m doing, I don’t mind switching between models from time to time. For general tasks, I’d still use a cloud-based LLM, but with a budget of around $3–5k, I’ve been considering a Apple Inc. Mac Studio or Apple Inc. Mac Pro with an M2 Ultra and around 128GB of RAM.

My question is whether that setup would be enough to provide meaningful value and deliver an experience somewhat comparable to using Codex for coding workflows.

I understand it would be an investment that might take 3–4 years to fully justify financially—especially compared with simply paying for Codex at full usage every month over that same period. At the same time, the hardware would still retain resale value, and I could use it for many other tasks beyond AI work.

I’ve already experimented a bit with an MacBook Pro M1 Pro MacBook Pro running Ollama with a 7B mini model alongside Claude Code, and I found the experience surprisingly good. Because of that, I wouldn’t mind spending up to $5k on something I could use every day, potentially generate income with, and rely on as a versatile long-term machine that may ultimately not cost as much as it seems upfront.