Published Oct 24, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT

Gregory Gibson is an IT specialist and technical writer who focuses on Linux and Windows Servers, Android customization, virtual private servers, web servers, and cybersecurity.

Gregory has worked in enterprise IT for over 15 years and enjoys creating content to help people get the most out of their homelab and self-hosted IT projects, and to stay safe online.

When not working, he enjoys photography, writing science fiction, and digital art.

I’ve wanted to try local AI in my homelab, but the expense of setting it all up has unfortunately been putting me off. From what I can see, local AI would require me to spend thousands on a server with multiple GPUs , a lot of memory, and power consumption equal to that of a small supermarket.

Before building anything I’d call serious, I wanted to see how little hardware I could realistically get away with.…