Infrastructure

The hardware
behind the
privacy.

Creeksea sources, configures, and manages enterprise-grade NVIDIA GPU infrastructure. Hardware is quoted separately from the management retainer and can be financed, leased, or purchased outright. We recommend hardware based on your workload — not our margin.

CREEKSEA · GPU NODE RACK MANAGEMENT NODE Dual Xeon · 256 GB ECC STORAGE NODE NVMe RAID · 96 TB raw GPU INFERENCE NODE · PRIMARY H100 H100 H100 H100 NVLink 900 GB/s NETWORK SWITCH · 100GbE GPU INFERENCE NODE · SECONDARY A100 A100 A100 A100 PATCH PANEL · 48-PORT UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLY BATTERY · 15 MIN LOAD 80% ON CABLE MANAGEMENT 42U · PRIVATE DEPLOYMENT

Consumer-Grade
Professional GPUs

Ideal for Tier 1 deployments. High-performance consumer and workstation GPUs that offer excellent inference throughput at accessible price points.

01
Tier 1 Recommended
NVIDIA RTX 4090
Ada Lovelace · 24GB GDDR6X

The highest-performance consumer GPU available. Exceptional for running 7B–34B parameter models at full precision, or 70B+ models with quantization. Ideal for teams with moderate concurrent user loads.

VRAM24 GB
CUDA Cores16,384
Memory BW1,008 GB/s
TDP450W
Models (FP16)Up to 13B
Models (INT4)Up to 70B
Tier 1 Alternative
NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada
Ada Lovelace · 48GB GDDR6

Professional workstation GPU with double the VRAM of the RTX 4090 and ECC memory support. Runs full-precision 34B models comfortably, and 70B with light quantization. Better suited for compliance-sensitive environments.

VRAM48 GB ECC
CUDA Cores18,176
Memory BW960 GB/s
TDP300W
Models (FP16)Up to 34B
Models (INT4)Up to 70B+
Tier 1 Recommended · Small Business
Apple Mac Studio
M4 Max
Apple Silicon · 64–96 GB Unified Memory

Our top recommendation for small businesses. The unified memory architecture lets the CPU and GPU share the same high-bandwidth memory pool, enabling surprisingly large models on compact, whisper-quiet hardware — with zero GPU driver management. Plug in, install Ollama, run models up to 40B at full precision.

Unified Memory64–96 GB
Memory BW546 GB/s
Models (Full)Up to 40B
Concurrent Users3–8
GPU DriversNone required
Est. Hardware Cost$2,000 – $4,500
Tier 1–2 · Multi-User Teams
Apple Mac Studio
M3 Ultra
Apple Silicon · Up to 192 GB Unified Memory

The most capable single-box option for teams that need large models at full precision without building a GPU workstation. Up to 192 GB of unified memory handles 70B+ models comfortably, with enough headroom for multiple concurrent users and several models loaded simultaneously.

Unified MemoryUp to 192 GB
Memory BW800 GB/s
Models (Full)Up to 70B+
Concurrent Users5–15
GPU DriversNone required
Est. Hardware Cost$5,000 – $10,000

Data Center
Workstation GPUs

Recommended for Tier 2 deployments. Purpose-built for inference at scale with ECC memory, higher VRAM, and enterprise-grade reliability.

02
Tier 2 Recommended
NVIDIA A5000
Ampere · 24GB GDDR6 ECC

Enterprise workstation GPU built for sustained 24/7 workloads. ECC memory ensures data integrity in long-running inference processes. Excellent performance-per-watt for always-on deployments.

VRAM24 GB ECC
CUDA Cores8,192
Memory BW768 GB/s
TDP230W
Models (FP16)Up to 13B
ReliabilityECC / Enterprise
Tier 2 High-Memory
NVIDIA A6000
Ampere · 48GB GDDR6 ECC

The flagship professional workstation GPU. 48GB VRAM enables simultaneous loading of multiple large models. Ideal for organizations running parallel inference requests across several model variants.

VRAM48 GB ECC
CUDA Cores10,752
Memory BW768 GB/s
TDP300W
Models (FP16)Up to 34B
ReliabilityECC / Enterprise

Data Center
Accelerators

Required for Tier 3 and Tier 4 deployments. True data center accelerators with NVLink, massive VRAM, and support for full-precision large models and training workloads.

03
Tier 3 Standard
NVIDIA A100 40GB
Ampere · 40GB HBM2e · SXM4

The industry benchmark for enterprise AI inference. HBM2e memory provides 1.6× the bandwidth of GDDR6. Multi-GPU configurations with NVLink enable running 180B+ parameter models without quantization.

VRAM40 GB HBM2e
Memory BW1,555 GB/s
FP16 TFLOPS77.97
TDP400W
NVLink600 GB/s
4× NVLinkUp to 180B FP16
Tier 3 / 4 High-Memory
NVIDIA A100 80GB
Ampere · 80GB HBM2e · SXM4

Double the VRAM of the A100 40GB. A single node can run full-precision 70B models; 4-node configurations handle 180B+ without compromise. The standard for organizations requiring maximum inference quality.

VRAM80 GB HBM2e
Memory BW2,039 GB/s
FP16 TFLOPS77.97
TDP400W
NVLink600 GB/s
Single NodeUp to 70B FP16
Tier 4 — Next Gen
NVIDIA H100 SXM
Hopper · 80GB HBM3 · SXM5

The most advanced GPU accelerator commercially available. 3× the AI inference throughput of the A100 with Transformer Engine optimizations. The definitive choice for organizations at the frontier of private AI deployment.

VRAM80 GB HBM3
Memory BW3,350 GB/s
FP16 TFLOPS267.6
TDP700W
NVLink900 GB/s
vs A100~3× inference
Tier 4 — Air-Gapped
Custom Air-Gapped Server
Bespoke · Customer Spec

For organizations requiring complete network isolation. Creeksea designs and deploys fully air-gapped GPU servers with manual update procedures, hardware security modules, and physical access controls. No external connectivity whatsoever.

GPU OptionsAny enterprise GPU
ConnectivityNone (air-gapped)
UpdatesPhysical media only
SecurityHSM + physical
ComplianceIL4 / IL5 eligible
PricingCustom

Choosing the right
local hardware.

GPU VRAM is the primary constraint for local deployments — larger models require more VRAM, or must be quantized to run on smaller hardware. For small businesses, the Apple Mac Studio is our top recommendation: its unified memory architecture allows surprisingly large models to run on compact, quiet, power-efficient hardware with no GPU driver management required.

04
Entry-Level
CPU inference · models ≤7B
Modern CPU, 32 GB RAM, SSD. Suitable for personal experimentation and light single-user workloads with small models.
1–2concurrent users
$800 – $2,000estimated hardware
Apple Mac Studio
M4 Max
Recommended · models ≤40B
64–96 GB unified memory. Plug-and-play, whisper-quiet, no GPU drivers. Our top recommendation for small businesses entering private AI.
3–8concurrent users
$2,000 – $4,500estimated hardware
Apple Mac Studio
M3 Ultra
Recommended · models ≤70B+
Up to 192 GB unified memory. Recommended for multi-user teams needing to run large models at full precision without quantization.
5–15concurrent users
$5,000 – $10,000estimated hardware
Mid-Tier PC
Consumer GPU · 8–16 GB VRAM · models ≤13B
NVIDIA RTX 4070/4080, 64 GB RAM. Good for teams that need Windows compatibility and larger model access with quantization.
2–5concurrent users
$2,000 – $5,000estimated hardware
High-Tier PC
Prosumer GPU · 24 GB VRAM · models ≤34B
NVIDIA RTX 4090 or A5000. Strong inference throughput with ECC memory options for compliance-sensitive environments.
3–8concurrent users
$5,000 – $10,000estimated hardware
Workstation
Multi-GPU · large models ≤70B
Dual RTX 4090 / A6000 or NVIDIA A100 40GB. For organizations requiring sustained high-throughput inference across large models at full precision.
8–20concurrent users
$10,000 – $25,000+estimated hardware

Remote deployment
cost guidance.

Cloud deployments use a production inference server (e.g., vLLM with continuous batching) which significantly increases concurrent throughput versus local. Reserved or spot instances can reduce on-demand costs by 30–70%. All estimates reflect approximate pricing as of early 2026.

05
Development
NVIDIA T4 · 16 GB VRAM
Light use and development environments. Suitable for testing model configurations and low-concurrency internal tools before production rollout.
2–5concurrent users
$200 – $500 / moon-demand estimate
Small Team
NVIDIA A10G · 24 GB VRAM
Production deployment for small teams. Full-precision 13B models or quantized 34B. Reliable throughput for daily business workflows.
5–12concurrent users
$500 – $900 / moon-demand estimate
Business
NVIDIA A100 40GB
Production-grade deployment for growing organizations. Handles large models at full precision with strong multi-user concurrency.
10–25concurrent users
$900 – $1,800 / moon-demand estimate
Enterprise
NVIDIA H100 / A100 80GB
Maximum throughput and model quality. Handles 70B+ models at full precision with high concurrency. Recommended for mission-critical deployments.
20–50+concurrent users
$2,000 – $6,000+ / moon-demand estimate

Local vs. cloud —
what to weigh.

06
Data Privacy
Total on-premises control.

Local deployments ensure all data stays on-premises, never leaving your network. The only option for sensitive, regulated, or confidential workloads that cannot tolerate any external data exposure.

Cost Structure
Capital vs. operating expense.

Local hardware is a one-time capital expense; cloud compute is an ongoing operating expense. Hybrid approaches are possible. At scale, local hardware typically becomes more cost-efficient after 18–24 months of operation.

Scalability
Cloud scales, local is fixed.

Cloud deployments scale on demand and handle variable workloads without over-provisioning. Local hardware is fixed capacity. High-throughput or bursty workloads may favor cloud or a carefully designed hybrid model.

Latency
Local is fastest for on-site teams.

On-premises deployments typically deliver lower latency for users on the same network. Cloud latency depends on geographic proximity to the instance and network conditions.

Maintenance
Hardware requires upkeep.

Local hardware requires physical maintenance, driver management, and occasional upgrades. Cloud reduces operational overhead but increases vendor dependency and ongoing spend.

Our Recommendation
Local first, hybrid if needed.

For most clients with data privacy requirements, we recommend starting with on-premises hardware — particularly the Apple Mac Studio for small teams. Cloud is introduced only when local capacity is genuinely insufficient.

How hardware
pricing works.

Hardware pricing varies with market conditions and availability. Creeksea sources hardware through authorized enterprise channels with full warranty coverage. Hardware can be purchased outright, financed over 24–36 months, or leased. In all cases, the hardware is owned or leased directly by your organization — Creeksea does not retain ownership. Hardware costs are quoted separately from the management retainer at the time of contract.

Contact activate@creeksea.ai for a current hardware quote tailored to your workload and budget.

Hardware Questions?

We'll spec the right
hardware for you.

Hardware selection depends on model size, concurrent users, and budget. Tell us your requirements and we'll build a recommendation — at no cost.

Get a Hardware Quote → View Service Tiers