# pc.l3.ai — UK Local LLM Hardware Observatory

> Building or buying >=128 GB unified/system memory under £3,000 in the UK during the October 2026 3x DRAM surge.

## Key October 2026 UK Findings
- UK 128GB DDR5 Median: £18.31/GB (+478% YoY, £2,199+ per kit).
- UK Server DDR4-3200 ECC RDIMM: £3.75/GB (£480 for 128GB 8-channel, 205 GB/s bandwidth).
- Best DIY Hybrid MoE Workstation (<£3,000): EPYC 7443 Milan + 128GB 8-Ch DDR4-3200 ECC + Used RTX 3090 24GB (£2,834).
- Best Used Dense 70B Workstation (<£3,000): Apple Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB (£2,450 at CeX UK w/ 5-yr warranty, 800 GB/s).
- Best New Turnkey 128GB Mini PC (<£3,000): Bosgame M5 / GMKtec EVO-X2 Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB (£1,950 direct EU/CN hub or £2,914 Amazon UK).

## Evaluated Systems (GBP inc. VAT)
- **Custom EPYC 7443 Milan + RTX 3090 24GB + 128GB 8-Ch DDR4-3200**: £2834 | 144GB usable AI RAM | 936 GB/s VRAM + 205 GB/s 8-Ch RAM | 35B MoE: 78 tok/s | 70B Dense: 13 tok/s | Best DIY Hybrid MoE Overall
- **Apple Mac Studio M1 Ultra (20C CPU / 48–64C GPU / 128GB Unified)**: £2450 | 114GB usable AI RAM | 800 GB/s Unified LPDDR5 | 35B MoE: 56 tok/s | 70B Dense: 19 tok/s | 800 GB/s Dense 70B King
- **Bosgame M5 / GMKtec EVO-X2 (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128GB LPDDR5X-8000, 2TB)**: £2914 | 120GB usable AI RAM | 256 GB/s 256-bit LPDDR5X-8000 | 35B MoE: 82 tok/s | 70B Dense: 15 tok/s | Best New Turnkey 128GB (UK Stock)
- **GMKtec EVO-X2 / Bosgame M5 128GB (Direct EU/CN Hub Import)**: £1950 | 120GB usable AI RAM | 256 GB/s 256-bit LPDDR5X-8000 | 35B MoE: 82 tok/s | 70B Dense: 15 tok/s | Best Value New 128GB (£1,050 Under Cap)
- **Dell Precision 7920 Tower + RTX 3090 24GB + 192GB 12-Ch DDR4 ECC**: £2280 | 200GB usable AI RAM | 936 GB/s VRAM + 210 GB/s 12-Ch RAM | 35B MoE: 72 tok/s | 70B Dense: 12 tok/s | Best Sub-£2,300 Capacity (216GB Total)
- **Dual RTX 5060 Ti 16GB (32GB GDDR7) + Ryzen 9 5900X + 128GB DDR4**: £2583 | 150GB usable AI RAM | 2x 448 GB/s GDDR7 (32GB) + 51 GB/s DDR4 | 35B MoE: 112 tok/s | 70B Dense: 8 tok/s | Best All-New GPU Build (32GB GDDR7)
- **Lenovo ThinkStation P620 (Threadripper PRO 3955WX) + RTX 3090 + 128GB 8-Ch**: £2840 | 144GB usable AI RAM | 936 GB/s VRAM + 205 GB/s 8-Ch RAM | 35B MoE: 76 tok/s | 70B Dense: 12.5 tok/s | Best High-Clock 8-Channel Workstation
- **Apple MacBook Pro 16" M3 Max (16C CPU / 40C GPU / 96GB Unified)**: £2840 | 86GB usable AI RAM | 400 GB/s Unified LPDDR5 | 35B MoE: 44 tok/s | 70B Dense: 11.5 tok/s | Best In-Stock Apple Silicon (<£3k)
- **Gigabyte Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB + Ryzen 7 5700X + 128GB DDR4**: £2965 | 150GB usable AI RAM | 640 GB/s VRAM (32GB) + 51 GB/s DDR4 | 35B MoE: 94 tok/s | 70B Dense: 7.5 tok/s | Contiguous 32GB Single-GPU Build
- **4x NVIDIA Tesla V100 32GB (128GB HBM2) + EPYC 7402P + 128GB DDR4**: £2950 | 240GB usable AI RAM | 4x 900 GB/s HBM2 (128GB) + 205 GB/s RAM | 35B MoE: 68 tok/s | 70B Dense: 26 tok/s | 128GB Pure HBM2 VRAM (Enthusiast)
- **Consumer AM5 Ryzen 5 7600 + 128GB DDR5-5600 + Intel Arc B580 12GB**: £2953 | 128GB usable AI RAM | 456 GB/s (12GB) + 75 GB/s 2-Ch DDR5 | 35B MoE: 29 tok/s | 70B Dense: 4.5 tok/s | Avoid — The 2026 DDR5 Trap
- **Framework Desktop DIY (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128GB LPDDR5X-8000)**: £3538 | 120GB usable AI RAM | 256 GB/s 256-bit LPDDR5X-8000 | 35B MoE: 82 tok/s | 70B Dense: 15 tok/s | Over £3k Cap (Board Alone £3,149)
- **Apple Mac Studio M2 Ultra (24C CPU / 60C GPU / 128GB Unified)**: £3350 | 114GB usable AI RAM | 800 GB/s Unified LPDDR5 | 35B MoE: 62 tok/s | 70B Dense: 20 tok/s | £350 Over Cap at CeX (£3,350)
- **NVIDIA DGX Spark (GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, 128GB Unified)**: £4780 | 118GB usable AI RAM | 273 GB/s LPDDR5X + NVFP4 Blackwell | 35B MoE: 102 tok/s | 70B Dense: 16 tok/s | £1,780 Over Cap After 2026 Price Hike
- **Apple Mac Studio M5 Max (18C CPU / 40C GPU / 128GB Unified, 1TB)**: £5399 | 114GB usable AI RAM | 546 GB/s Unified LPDDR5X | 35B MoE: 48 tok/s | 70B Dense: 14.5 tok/s | £2,399 Over Cap (Apple RAM Tax)

## Machine-Readable Dataset
- JSON API: https://pc.l3.ai/api/hardware.json