I need to spend $5000 by June 15th. It’s part of a slush fund that we get every year. It goes back to the government if we don’t spend it. It would be an opportunity to get a really nice desktop that could do some light machine learning too. We have access to a cluster for the big stuff.
However, the lab I’m joining prefers Apple, so I ended up just getting a Mac Studio with the highest specs. A Mac Pro wasn’t an option since they start at $7000.