Rig Finder index / 14B / Casual chat / North Dakota
Best rig to run a 14B model for casual chat in North Dakota
At this usage, renting Claude Sonnet 4.6 beats owning for every rig that runs a 14B model. The least-bad build is the Mini-PC, but that's a sovereignty call, not a savings one.
Same workload, same cloud, same electricity — we swap only the hardware and rank by real break-even. Rigs that can't run a 14B model are shown, never recommended. Compared against Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3/M in, $15/M out); change the cloud in the lab.
Every build, ranked
| Rig | Build | 14B tok/s | Local/mo | Break-even | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini-PCbest payoff | $750 | 11estimated | $21.32 | ~37 mo | RENT |
| RTX 3090 (used) | $1,200 | 50estimated | $35.56 | ~64 mo | RENT |
| RTX 4090 | $2,300 | 75estimated | $66.35 | ~124 mo | RENT |
| 2× RTX 3090 | $2,250 | 55estimated | $66.28 | ~131 mo | RENT |
| Mac M-series | $3,000 | 40estimated | $83.78 | ~146 mo | RENT |
| RTX 5090 | $3,500 | 110estimated | $100 | ~195 mo | RENT |
Assumes casual chat use: ~3M tokens/month, 1h/day active, 3h/day idle, at North Dakota electricity ($0.123/kWh). Speeds are our estimates; community-measured tok/s live on the interactive Rig Finder and the benchmarks board. Every formula is on the methodology page.
Run this with your exact numbers →