Used RTX 3060 12GB starter
£1,176
Parts
Compatibility: No problems found.Est. load 310 W of 650 W · spikes to 412 W
| Component | Selection | Price | Where | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB · 360 GB/s · 170 W | £390 | eBay | Buy |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-12400F LGA1700 · 6 cores · 20 PCIe lanes | £130 | eBay | Buy |
| Motherboard | MSI PRO B760-P WiFi DDR4 LGA1700 · DDR4 · ATX | £157 | eBay | Buy |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2×16GB) DDR4-3600 32 GB · DDR4-3600 | £183 | eBay (used) | Buy |
| Power supply | MSI MAG A650BN 650W 650 W | £56 | eBay | Buy |
| Case | Corsair 4000D Airflow GPUs up to 360 mm | £80 | eBay | Buy |
| Storage | Crucial P3 Plus 1TB 1000 GB NVME | £180 | eBay | Buy |
| Total | £1,176 | |||
- Note: Check the power connectors on the card you buy: this power supply has 0 12V-2x6 and 2 8-pin PCIe connectors.
- Note: Corsair 4000D Airflow fits graphics cards up to 360 mm: check the length of the card you buy.
What this build runs
The most precise quant that fits, at 32k context. Estimates, not measurements.
| Model | Quant | Fits | Memory | Max context | Decode @32k | Prefill | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemma 4 12B | Q6_K | fits | 10.8 GB | 59k100k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 431 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Qwen 3.5 9B Alibaba Qwen | Q8_0 | fits | 10.8 GB | 47k79k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 537 tok/s | chat, coding |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B DeepSeek | Q5_K_M | fits | 10.8 GB | 35k65k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 442 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Qwen3 8B Alibaba Qwen | Q5_K_M | fits | 10.8 GB | 35k40k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 442 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Qwen 3.5 4B Alibaba Qwen | Q8_0 | fits | 6.1 GB | 174k256k with q8 cache | 40tok/sest. | 1005 tok/s | chat, coding, long documents |
| Ministral 3 8B Mistral AI | Q5_K_M | fits | 10.8 GB | 36k66k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 427 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Granite 4.2 8B IBM | Q4_K_M | fits | 11.0 GB | 34k62k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 407 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Gemma 4 E4B | Q8_0 | fits | 9.4 GB | 91k128k with q8 cache | 24tok/sest. | 675 tok/s | chat, coding |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B Liquid AI | Q8_0 | fits | 10.8 GB | 43k75k with q8 cache | 50tok/sest. | 2206 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Llama 3.1 8B Meta | Q6_K | fits | 11.0 GB | 34k63k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 467 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Qwen2.5 0.5B Alibaba Qwen | Q8_0 | fits | 1.8 GB | 32k | 239tok/sest. | 4805 tok/s | chat, coding, long documents |
| Qwen3.5 0.8B Alibaba Qwen | Q8_0 | fits | 2.0 GB | 256k | 181tok/sest. | 4514 tok/s | chat, coding, agents, long documents |
| Qwen3.5 2B Alibaba Qwen | Q5_K_M | fits | 2.6 GB | 256k | 120tok/sest. | 2152 tok/s | chat, coding, agents, long documents |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B DeepSeek | Q8_0 | fits | 3.5 GB | 128k | 79tok/sest. | 1808 tok/s | chat, coding, long documents |
| MiniCPM5 2B openbmb | Q8_0 | fits | 4.7 GB | 128k | 55tok/sest. | 1080 tok/s | chat, coding, agents, long documents |
| LFM2.5 2.6B Liquid AI | Q8_0 | fits | 5.4 GB | 124k128k with q8 cache | 46tok/sest. | 1223 tok/s | chat, coding, agents, long documents |
| LFM2.5 VL 3B Liquid AI | Q8_0 | fits | 5.4 GB | 32k | 46tok/sest. | 1121 tok/s | chat, coding, agents, long documents |
| granite vision 4.1 4b IBM | Q8_0 | fits | 6.8 GB | 87k128k with q8 cache | 35tok/sest. | 783 tok/s | chat, coding |
| granite 4.2 3b IBM | Q8_0 | fits | 7.0 GB | 84k128k with q8 cache | 34tok/sest. | 821 tok/s | chat, coding, agents |
| GLM 4.6V Flash Z.ai | Q4_K_M | fits | 7.9 GB | 110k128k with q8 cache | 30tok/sest. | 368 tok/s | chat, coding |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B DeepSeek | Q8_0 | fits | 10.2 GB | 52k90k with q8 cache | 22tok/sest. | 528 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 2512 Mistral AI | Q5_K_M | fits | 10.8 GB | 36k66k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 427 tok/s | chat, coding |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B DeepSeek | Q6_K | fits | 11.0 GB | 34k63k with q8 cache | 21tok/sest. | 467 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Qwen 3.8 27B Alibaba Qwen | UD-Q4_K_M | offload | 18.4 GB | – | 4tok/sest. | 141 tok/s | – |
| Qwen 3.6 27B Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | offload | 18.7 GB | – | 4tok/sest. | 140 tok/s | – |
| Gemma 4 31B | Q4_K_M | offload | 21.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 118 tok/s | – |
| Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B Alibaba Qwen | MXFP4 | offload | 21.8 GB | – | 14tok/sest. | 931 tok/s | chat |
| Qwen 3.5 27B Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | offload | 18.6 GB | – | 4tok/sest. | 140 tok/s | – |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | UD-Q4_K_M | offload | 17.5 GB | – | 13tok/sest. | 920 tok/s | chat |
| Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | offload | 22.1 GB | – | 14tok/sest. | 926 tok/s | chat |
| GLM 4.7 Flash Z.ai | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.6 GB | – | 8tok/sest. | 511 tok/s | – |
| Devstral Small 2 24B Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 146 tok/s | – |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B NVIDIA | UD-Q6_K_XL | offload | 33.7 GB | – | 8tok/sest. | 896 tok/s | – |
| gpt-oss 20B OpenAI | Q4_K_M | offload | 12.5 GB | – | 28tok/sest. | 936 tok/s | chat, coding |
| Kimi Linear 48B-A3B Moonshot AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 29.2 GB | – | 14tok/sest. | 712 tok/s | chat |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | offload | 21.2 GB | – | 7tok/sest. | 434 tok/s | chat |
| Qwen3 32B Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | offload | 27.3 GB | – | 2tok/sest. | 74 tok/s | – |
| Gemma 3 27B | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 147 tok/s | – |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 146 tok/s | – |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | offload | 27.4 GB | – | 2tok/sest. | 85 tok/s | – |
| Ministral 3 14B Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 13.6 GB | 18k34k with q8 cache | 9tok/sest. | 268 tok/s | chat |
| Qwen3 14B Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | offload | 14.3 GB | 14k26k with q8 cache | 7tok/sest. | 234 tok/s | chat |
| Phi-4 14B Microsoft | Q4_K_M | offload | 15.4 GB | 12k16k with q8 cache | 6tok/sest. | 225 tok/s | chat |
| Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking JetBrains | Q6_K | offload | 12.0 GB | – | 36tok/sest. | 1539 tok/s | chat, coding, agents |
| Kimi VL A3B Moonshot AI | mlx-5bit | offload | 12.9 GB | – | 25tok/sest. | 1110 tok/s | chat, coding |
| LFM2.5 24B A2B Liquid AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 17.7 GB | – | 11tok/sest. | 954 tok/s | chat |
| GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking Z.ai | mlx-8bit | offload | 13.1 GB | – | 10tok/sest. | 337 tok/s | – |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | offload | 15.3 GB | 12k22k with q8 cache | 6tok/sest. | 212 tok/s | chat |
| Devstral Small 2507 Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 148 tok/s | – |
| Magistral Small 2506 Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 148 tok/s | – |
| Magistral Small 2507 Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 148 tok/s | – |
| Magistral Small 2509 Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | offload | 19.2 GB | – | 3tok/sest. | 146 tok/s | – |
| granite 4.2 30b IBM | Q4_K_M | offload | 25.7 GB | – | 2tok/sest. | 100 tok/s | – |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash DeepSeek | UD-Q2_K_XL | won't run | 93.8 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 5.3 Flash Z.ai | UD-Q2_K_XL | won't run | 102.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Qwen 3.8 Flash Next Alibaba Qwen | UD-Q2_K_XL | won't run | 75.2 GB | – | – | – | – |
| MiniMax M2.7 MiniMax | UD-Q2_K_XL | won't run | 78.8 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B Alibaba Qwen | UD-Q2_K_XL | won't run | 40.7 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B NVIDIA | UD-Q2_K_XL | won't run | 52.2 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Qwen3 Coder Next Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | won't run | 46.9 GB | – | – | – | – |
| gpt-oss 120B OpenAI | Q4_K_M | won't run | 60.5 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Mistral Small 4 119B Mistral AI | UD-Q2_K_XL | won't run | 39.0 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 4.5 Air Z.ai | Q2_K | won't run | 48.8 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B Alibaba Qwen | Q4_K_M | won't run | 46.9 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Llama 3.3 70B Meta | Q4_K_M | won't run | 50.5 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek R1 DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | won't run | 379.7 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | won't run | 380.2 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | won't run | 50.5 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek V3 0324 DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | won't run | 379.7 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek V3.1 DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | won't run | 380.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek V3.2 DeepSeek | Q4_K_M | won't run | 380.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 DeepSeek | MXFP4 | won't run | 149.2 GB | – | – | – | – |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp DeepSeek | MXFP4 | won't run | 158.0 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Devstral 2 123B Instruct 2512 Mistral AI | Q8_0 | won't run | 135.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 4.5V Z.ai | Q4_K_M | won't run | 65.9 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 4.6V Z.ai | Q4_K_M | won't run | 72.2 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 4.7 Z.ai | Q4_K_M | won't run | 214.0 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 5.1 Z.ai | MXFP4 | won't run | 423.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 5.2 Z.ai | UD-Q4_K_M | won't run | 437.5 GB | – | – | – | – |
| GLM 5.3 Z.ai | Q8_0 | won't run | 750.0 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Kimi K2 Moonshot AI | Q4_K_M | won't run | 581.2 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Kimi K2 Instruct 0905 Moonshot AI | Q4_K_M | won't run | 581.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Kimi K2 Thinking Moonshot AI | Q4_K_M | won't run | 581.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Kimi K2.5 Moonshot AI | Q4_K_M | won't run | 581.6 GB | – | – | – | – |
| MiniMax M2 MiniMax | Q4_K_M | won't run | 137.5 GB | – | – | – | – |
| MiniMax M2.1 MiniMax | Q4_K_M | won't run | 137.5 GB | – | – | – | – |
| MiniMax M2.5 MiniMax | MXFP4 | won't run | 123.9 GB | – | – | – | – |
| MiniMax M3 MiniMax | UD-Q4_K_M | won't run | 251.4 GB | – | – | – | – |
| Mistral Medium 3.5 128B Mistral AI | Q4_K_M | won't run | 81.6 GB | – | – | – | – |