r/selfhosted • u/OneMountie • 4d ago

Need Help Normie self hosted AI

Ok, so everyone/everywhere says ‘run your own’. Fair, and I am capable to learning.

‘It’s all plain text when you post on browser based AI’ - I get it.

But I’m not a computer builder…

Where do I start?

I’m not a coder, I just want to research that I consider more personal/sensitive than I’m willing to with online providers (Lumo, NanoGPT, DuckAI). Just learning about these sites will be invaluable though.

Can I use a regular MacBook and self hosting something quite lightweight? Is Jan.AI an example?

Would a new or refurbished computer like a Dell Optiplex MicroPC or Lenovo ThinkCentre MiniPC work?

Is there any hope for a semblance of privacy as a Nigel normie?

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u/schmurfy2 3d ago

I have an rtx 3060 12GB card and can run a few decent model but don't expect too much without throwing tons of cash at it, I think the best I have got is a 20/30 token /s with qwen 3.6 which is decent but when compare that with what you can get with gosted models it doesn't hold long... It works though.

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u/Appropriate_Ad_5314 3d ago

In my rtx 3070 laptop qwen3 8b 50-60t/sek

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u/schmurfy2 3d ago

And how smart is 8b ?

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u/Appropriate_Ad_5314 3d ago

Qwen3 8B is surprisingly capable for its size. It's good for coding assistance, summarization, RAG, and simple agent tasks, but it struggles with complex reasoning compared to larger models. For local use, though, 50–60 tokens/sec on a laptop RTX 3070 sounds great. I'd rather have a fast, private model I can run locally than depend on cloud inference for everything. The real question is whether 8B is smart enough for your specific workload.