diff --git a/self_hosting_machinery/finetune/scripts/aux/dataset.py b/self_hosting_machinery/finetune/scripts/aux/dataset.py
index 15e8aaed..e280d067 100644
--- a/self_hosting_machinery/finetune/scripts/aux/dataset.py
+++ b/self_hosting_machinery/finetune/scripts/aux/dataset.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import os
 from typing import Any, Dict
 
+import psutil
 import torch
 from torch.utils.data import DataLoader
 from transformers import AutoTokenizer
@@ -86,6 +87,10 @@ def create_train_dataloader(
     if dataset.files_len == 0:
         raise RuntimeError("No train files provided")
 
+    mem = psutil.virtual_memory()
+    if mem.total // 2 ** 30 <= 16:  # saving up a bunch of memory for low specs machines (<= 16Gb ram)
+        num_workers = 1
+
     return DataLoader(
         dataset,
         batch_size=batch_size * world_size,