Ollama

Ollama is the most popular way to run local LLMs — a command-line tool and background server that pulls quantized GGUF models with one command (ollama run llama3) and exposes an OpenAI-compatible API on localhost. It handles model downloading, quantization selection, and memory management, which is why it's the default recommendation for these mini PCs across AMD, NVIDIA, and Apple hardware. On unified-memory boxes it loads the model into the shared pool and runs on the GPU where supported. It's the easiest on-ramp; LM Studio adds a GUI, and llama.cpp sits underneath both.

Ollama is what most buyers will install first — it runs identically on a Strix Halo box, a GB10, or a Mac. If you'd rather browse models in a window than a terminal, reach for LM Studio.