Basic Coding Assistant

basic

Run a single local coding model for code completion and chat. The entry-level builder setup — replace API-dependent code completion with a local 7-8B model.

CursorContinueLM StudioOllama

Concurrent VRAM

5.8 GB

Peak VRAM

5.8 GB

Min Bandwidth

200 GB/s

Models Required

VRAM Breakdown

How the 5.8 GB concurrent VRAM is used.

Switched (Loaded As Needed)

These share VRAM with the largest concurrent model — only one runs at a time.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct(code completion and chat)

5.8 GB

Q5_K_M

Local vs API Costs

Typical Monthly API Cost

$30/mo

Break-Even Point

25 months

Annual Savings After Break-Even

~$288/yr

Based on ~200 Cursor completions/day at ~$1/day API cost. Budget AI Desktop at $753. Privacy and offline access are the main value drivers at this tier, not pure cost savings.

Recommended Builds

Pre-configured builds that can run the Basic Coding Assistant workflow.

Budget

BudgetBasic AI Coding

Budget AI Desktop

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB · 32GB DDR4-3200 (2x16GB)

$75312 GB VRAM

Runs 7 models

Prefer a Mac? Apple Silicon with unified memory can run this workflow too. See the Mac AI Builder workflow →

Get a personalized recommendation for this workflow →

Author: Ada. Last updated: 2026-03-01.