πŸš€ Do you want to create your own oLLM β€” your own AI in a box? Here’s a recipe for one that’s been built, tested, and battle-proven. We affectionately call them llamas (oLLaMa β€” get it? πŸ¦™).

oLLM mascot

πŸ–₯️ oLLM Master Shopping List

What is an oLLM? Think of it as your own offline Large Language Model β€” a personal AI you can build and run locally. Today we’ll keep it simple: just the barebones list to go from empty desk ➝ full AI tower.

πŸ–₯️ Section 1: Tower, Peripherals, Tools

Case: NZXT H5 Flow ATX Mid-Tower β€” ~$90
Monitor: ASUS ProArt PA248QV 24" IPS β€” ~$200
Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech MK120 Wired Combo β€” ~$25
Fans: ARCTIC F12 120mm (2-pack) β€” ~$15
USB Stick: SanDisk Ultra 32GB USB 3.0 β€” ~$10
Toolkit: iFixit Essential Toolkit β€” ~$25
Extras: Zip ties, Velcro straps, Anti-static strap, Thermal paste, Mouse pad β€” ~$35

βš™οΈ Section 2: Main Hardware

Motherboard: MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 ATX β€” ~$180
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K β€” ~$300
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black β€” ~$45
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, 16GB β€” ~$800
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 3200MHz β€” ~$80
OR
Samsung 990 PRO Heatsink NVMe M.2 SSD, 4TB (MZ-V9P4T0CW), PCIe 4.0
(Recommended for heavy training / large datasets)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G5, 80+ Gold, Modular β€” ~$140

🌐 Section 3: Networking

WiFi Card: TP-Link Archer TXE75E WiFi 6E β€” ~$60
Ethernet Cable: Cat6 10ft β€” ~$8

πŸ’½ Section 4: Vital Software

Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS (free)
NVIDIA Drivers 550.xx (free)
llama.cpp (free, GitHub)
PostgreSQL 16 (free)
pgvector extension (free)

🧩 Section 5: Add-On Software

LM Studio (GUI, free)
GPT4All (GUI, free)
pdfplumber
openpyxl
python-docx
python-pptx
odfpy
BeautifulSoup4
trafilatura
Whisper (speech-to-text)
Coqui TTS (text-to-speech)
pytesseract (OCR)
diffusers (image generation)
FastAPI
Uvicorn
Rich
Loguru
tqdm

⚑ Section 6: Power & Protection

Surge Protector: APC SurgeArrest 8-Outlet β€” ~$25
UPS (Optional): APC Back-UPS 600VA β€” ~$70

🧩 Build the Llama: Step-by-Step Assembly Guide

Step 1: Unbox & Prepare Workspace

Clear a clean, static-safe area. Use an anti-static wrist strap if you have one.

Step 2: Install CPU and Cooler

Lift the motherboard lever, align the CPU notch, seat gently. Apply thermal paste (pea-sized), mount cooler per instructions.

CPU installation diagram