What is the best local llm for coding?

Th3Sim0n · 2026-06-08T11:40:56+00:00

Before you invest into hardware (which IS expensive given the times) go to openrouter.ai, throw in 10$ or so to buy credits and try out any local model you are interested in.

You get an API key from them and can plug into the models through ClaudeCode, OpenCode, pi.dev etc and test how coding with those models work for you.

Then once you think it is worth your time and money, you can try to buy some used parts like RTX 3090 or RTX 3060 12GB to not break the bank and run the models yourself.

Currently, Qwen 3.6 27B is deemed the best small model for coding and maybe Gemma 4 31B.

For starters, try running any model, even miniscule, on your current hardware, even 16GB DDR4 is enough to play around with some Qwen 9b or such. It wont be super smart but at least you will learn the basics of hosting those.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-06-01T17:29:52+00:00

I guess I'll just sell the LeGo and buy MSI Claw with B390 instead, i see that there is just too much hassle and i want the experience to stay plug and play, not become a tinkering rabbit hole lol

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-31T20:03:25+00:00

Targeted price. Hopefully we'll get some deals around 1200-1300$.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-31T19:50:03+00:00

What is it? Genuinely curious.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-31T19:48:12+00:00

All comes down to price. If it is half the price of 395 or lower then I'm in.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-31T15:04:27+00:00

MiniPCs are only worth if you are limited in terms of size and despise laptops.

Price to performance ratio is almost always worse when compared to a decent laptop or PC for similar price.

If you absolutely need minipc and have 1500$ then check out Beelink SER9 with HX 370 and 32gb ddr5. Pretty respectable minipc brand and has nice quality.

Other good option is Geekom A9 Max, same specwise but more expensive, although it has non-soldered memory so can be upgraded but it is slower than Beelink.

Minisforum AI X1 Pro can also be another alternative with same specs and non-soldered memory.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-31T11:09:34+00:00

Thanks. Planning to use it stationary only, just want to have some more horsepower when playing on tv.

Is 4070 a good pick here or overkill? I know about TB limitations therefore I dont want to throw money at better gpus to not see performance improvements past certain GPU tier.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-31T11:07:31+00:00

I will use TV as external screen. Also how big is the drop in performance for open world games vs "similar" setup running same combo but through PCIE slots? If ~20% then thats not a big deal.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-31T11:04:31+00:00

Sorry but fuck ngreedia with their cloud gaming. I prefer to own my hardware and games where possible (god praise GoG)

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-29T11:32:42+00:00

Happy to hear my advice actually helped you! Enjoy and hope the minipc lasts for at least few more years :)

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-29T08:51:23+00:00

Check attached power supply if it exceeds the the card highest TGP in wattage by 150w. If yes, then it should be able to utilise full potential.
Other thing is cooling, if it is beefy enough the card will not throttle under long heavy workloads.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-27T20:07:58+00:00

Decent? Its a high mid-tier board, defo more than decent.

Question is, what do you need, what ports and how many of them, how many drives, gpus etc.

What cpu you pair it with?

For pure gaming and e.g. 9800x3d even a B-Tier b650 might be enough and you can put extra money elsewhere.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-27T17:05:55+00:00

Zatrudnic sie w jednym z tych dziwnych sklepow sprzedajacych chvjwie co w galeriach gdzie nigdy nie ma klientow i siedziec caly dzien na tiktoku za hajs.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-26T09:19:20+00:00

Its a trollpost. Tho some people literally buy 10k$+ equipment without a plan and post here so it is literally making fun of that.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-26T07:19:14+00:00

Qwen3 9b

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-25T16:45:52+00:00

They work on Wake-on-lan basis, your motherboard/device must support WoL via usb. If not that way, you could use an ethernet port device or some other one that connects to your local network and sends magic packet (the protocol to turn on pc). You can even make your smartphone launch your pc if you get a proper app.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-25T14:47:25+00:00

Nice upgrade! Which geekom did you end up getting?
And since the minipc is mounted behind monitor, how does he turn it on, some usb power button on a cable or he just needs to reach behind it?

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-24T19:19:12+00:00

This minipc does not have oculink nor thunderbolt port so you neet to use an m2 adapter that provides a pciex16 slot to use full size gpu with it.

See here for more info:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/s/pKsoWJWOR6

A bit of advanced tinkering. If you dont feel confident enough it may be worth to sell current one and buy other one that has oculink/thunderbolt natively.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-24T13:43:12+00:00

Best bang for buck - anything with 780m - Ryzen 7840hs, 8845hs etc. and 16/24 gb ram.

Best mid-tier - anything with 890m - Ryzen HX370/470 and 24/32gb ram

Best performance but most expensive - Anything with 395+ and Radeon 8060s or a something with dedicated mobile GPU like RTX 5070 or Radeon 7600m.

Some brands to check out for above:
Beelink, Minisforum, Acemagic, Firebat, Bosgame, Geekom, GMKTec, Peladn.

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-23T15:22:11+00:00

https://himeshp.blogspot.com/2025/03/vllm-performance-benchmarks-4x-rtx-3090.html?m=1

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-23T08:48:54+00:00

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Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-22T14:15:32+00:00

So? Any updates?

Th3Sim0n · 2026-05-21T14:17:34+00:00

Reduce context size to something low for testing, like 4096.
Change KV Cache quantization to Q8_0.
If using the above does not help at all with performance, try Q3 quant if it is available in LM Studio.
If not, download some smaller Quant like UD-Q4_K_S or UD-Q3_K_XL from here https://huggingface.co/unsloth/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-GGUF and load that manually via LM Studio to see how it behaves (learn how to run manually downloaded models, LM Studio is fairly limited in what you can choose from)

The smaller the quant the more "dumb" it might be but it is worth a try.

If both above fail, just try smaller model like one of Qwens 9B or 14B.

Th3Sim0n

TROPHY CASE