What does your actually useful local LLM stack look like?
I’m looking for something that provides you with real value — not just a sexy demo.
---
After a recent internet outage, I realized I need a local LLM setup as a backup — not just for experimentation and fun.
My daily (remote) LLM stack:
- Claude Max ($100/mo): My go-to for pair programming. Heavy user of both the Claude web and desktop clients.
- Windsurf Pro ($15/mo): Love the multi-line autocomplete and how it uses clipboard/context awareness.
- ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo): My rubber duck, editor, and ideation partner. I use it for everything except code.
Tools
- Ollama: for running models locally
- Aider: Claude-code-style CLI interface
- VSCode w/ continue.dev extension: local chat & autocomplete
- Chat: llama3.1:latest
- Autocomplete: Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B
- Coding/Editing: deepseek-coder-v2:16b
- CPU/Memory (running on an M1 MacBook)
- Cost (within reason)
- Data privacy / being trained on (not trying to start a philosophical debate here)
- Actual usefulness (i.e. “vibes”)
- Ease of use (tools that fit with my muscle memory)
- Correctness (not benchmarks)
- Latency & speed
---
Who I am
- CTO of a small startup (5 amazing engineers)
- 20 years of coding (since I was 13)
- Ex-big techI don't see the point of a local AI stack, outside of privacy or some ethical concerns (which a local stack doesn't solve anyway imo). I also *only* have 24GB of RAM on my laptop, which it sounds like isn't enough to run any of the best models. Am I missing something by not upgrading and running a high-performance LLM on my machine?
Not to mention, running a giant model locally for hours a day is sure to shorten the lifespan of the machine…
There's no reason running a model would shorten a machine's lifespan. PSUs, CPUs, motherboards, GPUs and RAM will all be long obsolete before they wear out even under full load. At worst you might have to swap thermal paste/pads a couple of years sooner. (A tube of paste is like, ten bucks.)
That is not a thing. Unless there's something wrong (badly managed thermals, an undersized PSU at the limit of its capacity, dusty unfiltered air clogging fans, aggressive overclocking), that's what your computer is built for.
Sure, over a couple of decades there's more electromigration than would otherwise have happened at idle temps. But that's pretty much it.
> I think I would need to spend $2000+ to run a decent model locally
Not really. Repurpose second hand parts and you can do it for 1/4 of that cost. It can also be a server and do other things when you aren't running models.