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 "slug": "the-two-hour-machine-priced",
 "title": "The Two-Hour Machine, Priced",
 "dek": "The computer that kept answering at about twelve tokens a second when this workshop pulled its plug — for a projected two hours on a battery — costs $959.00 today as one listing, or $899.98 in three parts, before tax, from one US retailer's new stock, priced on 10 September 2026 with the listing every line came from. The memory is the second-biggest line of the three-part build.",
 "published": "2026-09-10",
 "series": [
  "bench"
 ],
 "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
 "status": "pending-judge",
 "pack_note": "no judge is seated, so every chip is held",
 "notice": "items with published:false are held and are not this page's published words",
 "source": {
  "url": "https://research.strata2signal.com/the-two-hour-machine-priced/",
  "md_url": "https://research.strata2signal.com/the-two-hour-machine-priced/index.md",
  "md_sha": "b6e6e24eb50dbece9939f82c877e45da4df7ed61ddcc979141d8343f2b1ae2db",
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  "anchors_sha": "3c106e6588604ab15688f864a8fb60318a30ce7536db466181bdbc8ff624e27a"
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 "short": {
  "paragraph": "A mini PC that writes at about twelve tokens a second on a 26-billion-parameter model costs $959.00 today as one listing, or $899.98 in three parts, before tax and before a screen, from one US retailer's new stock. The memory is the second-biggest line of the three-part build. Over three years a twenty-dollar subscription costs less; the machine buys the rest of this page.",
  "from_dek": false,
  "counts": {
   "words": 1402,
   "minutes": 6,
   "tables": 3,
   "kit": false
  },
  "bullets": [
   {
    "text": "the first build leaves $41.00",
    "figure": "$41.00",
    "cite": "what-this-page-prices-and-what-it-does-not",
    "quote": "The first build leaves $41.00 of headroom under a thousand dollars, which is 4.3 per cent of $959, so a reader whose sales tax is above that pays more than a thousand for it.",
    "span": [
     3135,
     3142
    ]
   },
   {
    "text": "the machine drew about 76 W",
    "figure": "76 W",
    "cite": "the-computer-as-this-workshop-ran-it",
    "quote": "By the battery unit's own meter it drew about 76 W while generating on mains; its idle draw, about 5 W, sat below that meter's floor and read as zero.",
    "span": [
     3903,
     3908
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   }
  ]
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 "sections": [
  {
   "id": "a-few-words-this-page-leans-on",
   "heading": "A few words this page leans on",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
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   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
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   ],
   "chars": 851,
   "digest": "this section defines terms used in the article, including token, barebones, SO-DIMM, NVMe, mixture of experts, and kWh.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "what-this-page-prices-and-what-it-does-not",
   "heading": "What this page prices, and what it does not",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
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   ],
   "chunks": [
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   ],
   "chars": 1479,
   "digest": "this page provides prices for one day, 10 September 2026, for a computer from one US retailer's new stock. it does not price a monitor, a keyboard, an operating system, or time, and totals are before sales tax and shipping.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "the-computer-as-this-workshop-ran-it",
   "heading": "The computer, as this workshop ran it",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    3398,
    4178
   ],
   "chunks": [
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   "chars": 780,
   "digest": "the machine is a Minisforum MS-01 mini PC with a 12th-generation Intel Core i5-12600H, twelve cores and sixteen threads, and 32 GB of memory. it drew about 76 W while generating on mains and its idle draw was about 5 W.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "build-a-the-same-box-bought-today",
   "heading": "Build A: the same box, bought today",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    4178,
    5913
   ],
   "chunks": [
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   ],
   "chars": 1735,
   "digest": "build A1 costs $959.00 for the whole box, 32 GB, 1 TB. build A2 costs $899.98 when assembled from three listings, including a barebones unit, 32 GB DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM, and a 1 TB NVMe drive.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "what-the-computer-runs",
   "heading": "What the computer runs",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    5913,
    7608
   ],
   "chunks": [
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   ],
   "chars": 1695,
   "digest": "on the processor alone, the machine runs various models with different writing speeds and wait times. mixture of experts models like gemma4:26b and nemotron-3.5-lightning 30B-A3B write faster than the 9-billion dense model.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "against-a-subscription",
   "heading": "Against a subscription",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
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    8308
   ],
   "chunks": [
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   ],
   "chars": 700,
   "digest": "a twenty-dollar-a-month subscription over three years is $720, while the computer alone is $959. running it for two hours of generation a day over three years at 76 W is about 166 kWh.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "what-this-page-does-not-say",
   "heading": "What this page does not say",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    8308,
    8881
   ],
   "chunks": [
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   ],
   "chars": 573,
   "digest": "the article does not price the battery unit, a used machine, or what memory will cost next month.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "who-ran-this-and-thanks",
   "heading": "Who ran this, and thanks",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    8881,
    9385
   ],
   "chunks": [
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   "chars": 504,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": "credits"
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 ],
 "chips": [
  {
   "id": "c-419026fb",
   "q": "how are specific technical terms defined?",
   "a": "The article provides definitions for terms like token, barebones, SO-DIMM, NVMe, mixture of experts, and kWh to ensure clarity for the reader.",
   "cites": [
    "a-few-words-this-page-leans-on"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-8e0e48e8",
   "q": "what information is excluded from the pricing?",
   "a": "The pricing covers the computer only and excludes monitors, keyboards, operating systems, shipping, sales tax, and the value of time.",
   "cites": [
    "what-this-page-prices-and-what-it-does-not"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-b4b8692c",
   "q": "how much power does the machine draw while generating?",
   "a": "The machine draws about 76 W while generating on mains, while its idle draw is about 5 W.",
   "cites": [
    "the-computer-as-this-workshop-ran-it"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-1625d2b8",
   "q": "how much does a pre-assembled version of the machine cost?",
   "a": "A complete unit including 32 GB of memory and a 1 TB drive costs $959.00.",
   "cites": [
    "build-a-the-same-box-bought-today"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-2566eeb2",
   "q": "how fast do different models write on this hardware?",
   "a": "Writing speeds vary by model, ranging from 3.3 tokens a second for mistral-small3.2:24b to 14.6 tokens a second for nemotron-3.5-lightning 30B-A3B.",
   "cites": [
    "what-the-computer-runs"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-a673d8b2",
   "q": "how does a subscription compare to owning the hardware?",
   "a": "A twenty-dollar-a-month subscription over three years costs $720, which is less than the $959 computer cost, though the machine offers privacy and offline functionality.",
   "cites": [
    "against-a-subscription"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-c42985ca",
   "q": "what limitations exist regarding the battery data?",
   "a": "The article does not price the 1500 VA battery unit used for testing, nor does it predict future memory costs or provide used market prices.",
   "cites": [
    "what-this-page-does-not-say"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  {
   "slug": "home-inference-and-diffusion-rig-cost",
   "why": "shares ground with § What this page prices, and what it does not · § What this page does not say"
  },
  {
   "slug": "two-hours-on-battery",
   "why": "shares ground with § What the computer runs · § The one table to remember"
  },
  {
   "slug": "three-at-the-table",
   "why": "shares ground with § What the computer runs · § Measured on our own machines"
  }
 ],
 "thanks": "## Who ran this, and thanks {#who-ran-this-and-thanks}\n\nThe listings were read from Newegg and from Minisforum's own store by an agent and checked by a human in the same hour; the speeds are the [two-hours-on-battery page's](/two-hours-on-battery/) own, unchanged, and the battery unit's meter did the watts. This page keeps its receipts the way [every page here does](/how-we-work/). Thanks to the readers who asked what the machine cost, which is the only reason a price page exists on a research hub.",
 "kit": null,
 "seat_class": {
  "writer": "gemma-class",
  "judge": null,
  "writer_runtime": "vllm"
 },
 "bench": {
  "bullets_written": 3,
  "bullets_kept": 2,
  "digests_written": 7,
  "digests_kept": 7,
  "chips_written": 7,
  "chips_kept": 7,
  "chips_grounded": 0,
  "chips_published": 0,
  "dropped_by": {
   "new_noun": 0,
   "figure": 1,
   "length": 0,
   "cite": 0,
   "judge": 0,
   "quote": 0,
   "directive": 0,
   "redaction": 0,
   "profanity": 0,
   "identifier": 0
  },
  "new_noun_tokens_checked": [
   "0",
   "1",
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   "12th-generation",
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   "1500",
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   "mistral-small3.2",
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  "new_noun_tokens_withheld": 0,
  "figure_definition": "v3",
  "drops": [
   {
    "kind": "bullet",
    "reason": "figure",
    "item": "the machine's idle draw sat below that meter's floor and read as 0",
    "detail": "terminal token carries no figure"
   }
  ]
 },
 "generated_utc": "2026-09-10T13:50:27Z"
}