My Budget Silent LLM Homelab: Intel Arc A770 (16GB) running Qwen3.5 9B (128K Context)
Here was my specific goal for a local LLM setup: * A dead-silent PC * Speed wasn’t a priority (I don’t mind it being a bit slow) * Long context length support is a must
To achieve this, I needed a cheap card with 16GB VRAM. I found some great deals and ended up buying both an Intel Arc A770 (16GB) and an AMD Instinct MI50 (16GB).
The MI50 is currently on hold, and I focused heavily on tweaking the A770.
After a lot of trial and error, I found the perfect sweet spot for a silent homelab setup by putting hard limits on the GPU: * Core Clock Limit: Locked at 1500 MHz * Power Limit (PL): Set to 100 W * Thermals: Because of these limits, the card never exceeds 66°C (150.8°F) under full load.
The Result: It’s definitely a bit slower, but it’s incredibly quiet, highly power-efficient, and rock-stable.
Right now, I'm running Qwen3.5 9B with a full 128K context length, and the experience is absolutely fantastic.
For anyone looking to build a budget-friendly, silent local LLM setup without worrying about high electricity bills or fan noise, don't sleep on a power-limited Intel A770!