Best PC for local LLMs under $2,000
Two complete builds that come in under $2,000, every part priced from a dated Newegg listing (Oct 15, 2026). No 24 GB build fits under $2,000 at current prices.
16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 — $1,744.44 for 16 GB of VRAM (AMD Radeon RX 9070 at $699.99, 644.6 GB/s). Fits 17 of our 27 sized models, largest Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 (14.33 GB) at ~34 tok/s estimate — about $51 per tok/s for the whole machine.
16 GB NVIDIA: RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB — $1,834.44 for 16 GB of VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB at $789.99, 448 GB/s). Fits 17 of our 27 sized models, largest Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 (14.33 GB) at ~24 tok/s estimate — about $76 per tok/s for the whole machine.
Part prices are listings dated 2026-10-15; totals exclude tax and shipping. Cheapest of these: 16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 at $1,744.44. Next step up: 24 GB: one used RTX 3090, $2,933.45 for 24 GB.
Last updated Oct 16, 2026. Speeds are bandwidth-based estimates, not benchmarks. Prices are dated snapshots and move daily; "check price" means we have no verified price.
16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 — $1,744.44
16 GB with more bandwidth than the RTX 5060 Ti (TechPowerUp). AMD runs llama.cpp via ROCm or Vulkan.
| Part | Item | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | AMD Radeon RX 9070 (new) | $699.99 | listing · via |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 9600X | $172.00 | listing · via |
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE B650M GAMING WIFI AM5 LGA 1718 AMD B650 M-ATX Motherboard DDR5, PCIe 4.0 M.2, PCI | $92.08 | listing · via |
| RAM | Patriot VIPER VENOM AMD 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 6400 (PC5 51200) AMD EXPO Desk | $449.99 | listing · via |
| Storage | ADATA LEGEND 710 M.2 2280 2TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) | $219.99 | listing · via |
| PSU | Super Flower Combat DB 850W ATX 3.1, 80+ Bronze, 5 Years Warranty, Flexible Flat Cables, F | $46.41 | listing · via |
| Case | NZXT S5 ATX mid-tower | $49.99 | listing · via |
| Cooler | Thermaltake UX400 ARGB (AM5 listed) | $13.99 | listing · via |
| Total (prices dated 2026-10-15) | $1,744.44 | ||
16 GB VRAM. Largest models that fit, with this build's bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s:
| Model | File | Needs | Speed estimate | $ per tok/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 | 14.33 GB | 15.8 GB | ~34 tok/s | $51 |
| Devstral-Small-2505 | 14.33 GB | 15.8 GB | ~34 tok/s | $51 |
| gpt-oss-20b | 11.67 GB | 13.2 GB | ~244 tok/s | $7 |
| Qwen3-14B | 9 GB | 10.5 GB | ~54 tok/s | $32 |
| Qwen2.5-Coder-14B-Instruct | 8.99 GB | 10.5 GB | ~54 tok/s | $32 |
$ per tok/s is the whole machine's price divided by the estimated speed. Full part list and sources: 16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070.
16 GB NVIDIA: RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB — $1,834.44
CUDA, lower bandwidth than the RX 9070.
| Part | Item | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB (new) | $789.99 | listing · via |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 9600X | $172.00 | listing · via |
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE B650M GAMING WIFI AM5 LGA 1718 AMD B650 M-ATX Motherboard DDR5, PCIe 4.0 M.2, PCI | $92.08 | listing · via |
| RAM | Patriot VIPER VENOM AMD 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 6400 (PC5 51200) AMD EXPO Desk | $449.99 | listing · via |
| Storage | ADATA LEGEND 710 M.2 2280 2TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) | $219.99 | listing · via |
| PSU | Super Flower Combat DB 850W ATX 3.1, 80+ Bronze, 5 Years Warranty, Flexible Flat Cables, F | $46.41 | listing · via |
| Case | NZXT S5 ATX mid-tower | $49.99 | listing · via |
| Cooler | Thermaltake UX400 ARGB (AM5 listed) | $13.99 | listing · via |
| Total (prices dated 2026-10-15) | $1,834.44 | ||
16 GB VRAM. Largest models that fit, with this build's bandwidth of 448 GB/s:
| Model | File | Needs | Speed estimate | $ per tok/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 | 14.33 GB | 15.8 GB | ~24 tok/s | $76 |
| Devstral-Small-2505 | 14.33 GB | 15.8 GB | ~24 tok/s | $76 |
| gpt-oss-20b | 11.67 GB | 13.2 GB | ~169 tok/s | $11 |
| Qwen3-14B | 9 GB | 10.5 GB | ~38 tok/s | $48 |
| Qwen2.5-Coder-14B-Instruct | 8.99 GB | 10.5 GB | ~38 tok/s | $48 |
$ per tok/s is the whole machine's price divided by the estimated speed. Full part list and sources: 16 GB NVIDIA: RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB.
How these compare with our other builds
| Build | VRAM | Total | Models that fit | Largest that fits | Qwen3-32B estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 | 16 GB | $1,744.44 | 17 of 27 | Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 | doesn't fit |
| 16 GB NVIDIA: RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | 16 GB | $1,834.44 | 17 of 27 | Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 | doesn't fit |
| 24 GB: one used RTX 3090 | 24 GB | $2,933.45 | 22 of 27 | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct | ~36 tok/s |
| 32 GB: two Radeon RX 9070 | 32 GB | $3,065.92 | 22 of 27 | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct | ~25 tok/s |
| 48 GB: dual used RTX 3090 | 48 GB | $5,443.94 | 24 of 27 | Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct | ~36 tok/s |
Speed calculator estimate
Estimate = 0.76 × bandwidth ÷ GB read per token (Q4 file size, scaled by active/total parameters for MoE). Fit = file size + 1.5 GB headroom ≤ total VRAM. Multi-GPU: VRAM adds, speed uses one card's bandwidth (layer split). Short context only. How this works
Questions people ask
What do these builds cost?
The 16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 build comes to $1,744.44 for 16 GB of VRAM. The 16 GB NVIDIA: RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB build comes to $1,834.44 for 16 GB of VRAM. Every part is a specific listing dated 2026-10-15; totals exclude tax and shipping, and prices move daily.
What models fit in 16 GB?
17 of our 27 sized models fit the 16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 build, the largest being Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 at 14.33 GB, an estimated 34 tok/s. 17 of our 27 sized models fit the 16 GB NVIDIA: RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB build, the largest being Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 at 14.33 GB, an estimated 24 tok/s. Against the whole machine's price that is about $51 per tok/s for the 16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 build and $76 per tok/s for the 16 GB NVIDIA: RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB build.
Does it run a 70B model?
No. Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct needs about 44 GB at Q4_K_M and 16 GB is not enough. The cheapest build we price that does fit it is the 48 GB: dual used RTX 3090 at $5,443.94.
What does the next step up cost?
The 24 GB: one used RTX 3090 build adds 8 GB of VRAM for $2,933.45, which is $1,189.01 more than the 16 GB starter: Radeon RX 9070 build. It fits 22 of our 27 sized models instead of 17.
Related
- What the AMD Radeon RX 9070 can run
- What the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB can run
- What GPU you need for Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506
- What GPU you need for Qwen3-32B
- Can the Radeon RX 9070 run Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506?
- Can the Radeon RX 9070 run gpt-oss-20b?
- Can the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB run Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506?
- Can the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB run gpt-oss-20b?
- Build: 24 GB: one used RTX 3090 — $2,933.45, 24 GB
- Build: 32 GB: two Radeon RX 9070 — $3,065.92, 32 GB
- Build: 48 GB: dual used RTX 3090 — $5,443.94, 48 GB
- Guide: Can an RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB run Qwen3 Coder 30B?
- Guide: Dual RTX 3090 local LLM build
- Guide: Best GPU for local LLMs (2026)