Tinybox by tinygrad
Ranked 2 of 9 workstations by recommenders
Prebuilt offline AI workstation from the tinygrad team, praised for balanced parts and a serious hardware-software approach; critics mostly say it is overpriced for what it runs.
Prebuilt offline AI workstation from the tinygrad team, praised for balanced parts and a serious hardware-software approach; critics mostly say it is overpriced for what it runs.
56 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 25
- criticize it
- 31
- approval share
- 45%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 25 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Prebuilt option with balanced components
“solid prebuilt with well balanced components and a pretty case”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “It's nice to have a prebuild option.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” Respected tinygrad team hardware approach
“seeing a serious attempt at a different software-hardware synergy is refreshing”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “it also complements the geohot idea behind the tinybox”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Open Source AI Must Win” “this is a great idea, and one I hope takes off”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” - Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Was my $48K GPU server worth it?”
Cheaper than comparable server hardware
“These specs look enormously cheaper than doing it with dell servers.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “Compare to salary, and it's cheap.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Overpriced for what it delivers
“they are way too expensive (and probably way too HOT) to just go in a home.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “That's just such a massively oversized server for the number of gpus. They're really not adding enough value add to overspend on anything.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “These aren't a good value buy unless you compare them to fully supported offerings from the big players.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” - Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters”
- Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters”
- Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters”
Vendor treatment and driver quality concerns
“You're really going to deliberately provide worse drivers for the machine I paid you for, just because I didn't buy the more expensive one?”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “will expect poor treatment from this vendor, an expectation that will be reinforced by numerous other things on this page”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “labeling AMD "Driver Quality" as "Good" (for comparison, they label nvidia's driver quality as "Great")”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” - Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters”
Cloud or used GPUs may be better
“I'm not sure exactly why you would buy through them vs rolling your own if you could afford the equivalent hardware.”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Open Source AI Must Win” “it makes no sense to buy this when you can just use the subsidised stuff from AI companies”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “there's a $25k markup I don't honestly understand”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” Heat, risers and multi-GPU complexity
“they are way too expensive (and probably way too HOT) to just go in a home.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters” “With 6 GPUs you have to deal with risers, pcie retimers, dual PSUs and custom case”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Tinybox- offline AI device 120B parameters”
Other workstations people recommend
The four most recommended other workstations, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac Pro | 49 | 92 | 35% | 11 | 16 yrs10 owners | — |
| Tinybox by tinygradThis page | 25 | 31 | 45% | 4 | — | — |
| Dell Precision | 23 | 12 | 66% | 9 | 10 yrs6 owners | — |
| Sun SPARCstation IPX | 12 | 5 | 71% | 4 | — | Approved |
| SGI Indy | 9 | 2 | 82% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 65 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I'm not sure exactly why you would buy through them vs rolling your own if you could afford the equivalent hardware.”
“I think it's a great project but the communication isn't clear to me.”
“it also complements the geohot idea behind the tinybox”
“At least geohot knows what he is doing.”
“This is cool, I'll add these as desktops”
“seeing a serious attempt at a different software-hardware synergy is refreshing”
“They’re kickstarting a TINY device that is pocketable and aimed at consumers.”
“$7.2k just to run at best Qwen3.5-35B-A3B doesn't seem worth it at all.”
“you’re getting roughly 3x the performance for 3x the cost”
“will expect poor treatment from this vendor, an expectation that will be reinforced by numerous other things on this page”
“It just looks like a "fuck you" to anyone buying the cheaper system.”
“You're really going to deliberately provide worse drivers for the machine I paid you for, just because I didn't buy the more expensive one?”
“their prices have gone up and some specs like RAM have gone down”
“The tone of this website is arrogant to the point of being almost hostile.”
“I wouldn't want to be the person who had to use it for anything.”
“These aren't a good value buy unless you compare them to fully supported offerings from the big players.”
“I just don’t believe that this can run inference on a 120 billion parameter model at actually useful speeds.”
“the compute density is insane”
“That's just such a massively oversized server for the number of gpus. They're really not adding enough value add to overspend on anything.”
“two rtx 8000s would probably have a better return on investment than the red v2”
“there's a $25k markup I don't honestly understand”
“Nvidia/AMD discourage running multiple gaming/workstation cards and encourage customers to buy $500K SXM/OAM servers.”
“looks like they are shipping consumer off-the-shelf hardwares in a custom box”
“But yeah, 4x Blackwell 6000s are ~32-36k, not sure where the other $30k is going.”
“it makes no sense to buy this when you can just use the subsidised stuff from AI companies”
“With 6 GPUs you have to deal with risers, pcie retimers, dual PSUs and custom case”
“the market is maybe looking more for a turn-key explicit promise”
“Surprisingly affordable but I’m not really interested in the 9070XT.”
“These specs look enormously cheaper than doing it with dell servers.”
“I feel it’s quite overpriced, even with the current component prices.”
“the rest of the VRAM is essentially wasted”
“Compare to salary, and it's cheap.”
“There's no way the red v2 is doing anything with a 120b parameter model.”
“they are way too expensive (and probably way too HOT) to just go in a home.”
“labeling AMD "Driver Quality" as "Good" (for comparison, they label nvidia's driver quality as "Great")”
“beautifully designed things to buy when I win the lottery”
“this is a great idea, and one I hope takes off”
“It's nice to have a prebuild option.”
“solid prebuilt with well balanced components and a pretty case”
“It had way better specs than red v2.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.