LLM with home delivery: hard drives with a set of open AI models are now on sale

Either as a joke or seriously, Torrance Computer Supply (TCS) has begun selling drives with pre-recorded large language models. Both a 14 TB HDD and a 1 TB memory card are available.

The HDD option is based on an inexpensive 14 TB LFF MDD drive (MDD16TSATA25672E): SATA-3, 7200 RPM, 256 MB cache. This is one of the most affordable hard drives of this capacity, since MDD is engaged in restoring used drives and selling stock from large vendors under its brand. The hard drive comes complete with an Orico case and a USB 3.0 adapter with external power (12 V, 24 W).

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According to the description, the hard drive contains current versions of more than two dozen open large language models (LLMs), including various variants of Llama, Mistral, Nemotron, etc. Versions from several billion to almost half a trillion parameters are offered with a maximum capacity of up to 820 GB. Sellers claim that they constantly change the set depending on changes in the market and technology. The purchase will cost $229, but if you return the drive, you can get $125 for further purchases in the same store.

The same site also offers an LLM kit “for the poor” – those who wish can purchase a 1 TB SanDisk 1TB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I flash card with an adapter included. This option costs only $119 and comes with at least three AI models: Llama3.1 with 8, 70 and 405 billion parameters. The practical value of these proposals is questionable, since no one is stopping you from downloading the same models and recording them on your drive. However, some companies offer services for offline data transportation, but in this case we are talking about order-of-magnitude larger volumes.