AI is everywhere. AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic went from unknown to household names in just a few short years. Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft keep rolling out their AI models across every product, from search to chatbot assistants and more. And, naturally, companies that manufacture computer chips and GPUs like Nvidia are raking in billions as they create the hardware that powers it all.But what if consumers don't want to send their data to Big Tech companies or fork over hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per month to Big AI companies for tokens? While computer hardware companies like Nvidia may be struggling to keep up with demand, everyday users can still find everything they need to build out their own machine – an AI PC – and run AI models locally But what exactly is an AI PC? What do you need if you want to build your own, or what should you look for if buying an AI PC pre-made? And how does it differ from other powerful computers built for specific purposes, such as gaming PCs?
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To answer these questions, Mashable spoke with an expert who builds PCs for a living, Quoted Tech co-founder and CEO Kevin Jia. Founded in 2023, Quoted Tech is a Canada-based company that builds custom PCs for thousands of customers. Jia and company also provided Mashable with access to one of their prebuilt models, the Quoted One Pro Plus, an entry-level custom prebuilt made-for-AI computer, so we could test out exactly what makes an AI PC an AI PC.What is an AI PC?An AI PC is exactly what it says it is: A computer that is built to handle artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs).Technically, every PC can utilize AI nowadays, just like one can play games or edit videos on any computer, no gaming PC or video editing workstation required. Just as a gaming PC delivers peak performance and the best gaming experience, an AI PC is built specifically to run AI models. As Jia pointed out, though, an AI PC doesn't mean it's a single-purpose machine, as many of the specifications you'd find in an AI PC can be found in a gaming rig or PC built for video processing, too."Users don’t need to choose between an 'AI' rig and a 'gaming' rig," Jia explained. "An AI-oriented computer doesn’t have to be a single-purpose machine. It is a workstation that’s fully capable of AI work, but it’s also built to comfortably handle gaming and other professional workloads in one system."Could I just use my laptop for AI?Of course, you can use ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini all on your $300 laptop. Cloud models can be run on any machine.However, if you're trying to run local AI processes, you're going to need a PC built for the task."AI needs a lot of GPU processing power, and you need a lot of VRAM, and you need a lot of memory, and you need a decent CPU, and you need to be able to cool all of that in a decent tower," Jia told us. "We've had customers come to us saying, 'Hey, I bought this laptop for AI, and it doesn't work, it just overheats, and it runs slow.'"
