Windows 7: Integrated graphics or silent card suggestions?

I have built many (8-10) "gaming" or "high performance" systems with ATX motherboards and video cards. I have no experience with integrated graphics. I could use a video card but would rather use integrated or a "fanless" card. I already have the Core 2 Quad Q8400 CPU I will use so I need a GOOD 775 board. I am having a VERY hard time finding a motherboard. The best I have come up with is this:

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EG45M-UD2H LGA 775 Intel G45 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

or maybe a motherboard with this card

Newegg.com - MSI N95GT-MD512Z GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

I don't know much about the G45 northbridge
The Intel X4500HD graphics seems to be one of the latest integrated graphics.
I do know the 9500GT will be plenty of card for what they need, but no fan?

Do any of you more experienced builders have any suggestions for a better motherboard with integrated graphics or a "fanless" card that is not going to overheat? Are some of these "fanless" cards good quality?



Thanks for any suggestions.

Trouble is you won't get a powerful GPU behind a passive heatsink.

I pfaffed around for ages before deciding on my own setup, and although I'm using a card which isn't passively cooled it's extremely quiet by comparison to many others - the fan idles pretty much the whole time but will rev up for extreme use (something that's never happened to mine, given I don't game personally).

My choice was this card...

Yes, but they don't need a powerful GPU to watch movies. That will be the most work it does. The only games will be Flash based and games that come with Windows 7. The machine is for a couple in their 60s and I think a 9500GT will be fine.

Maybe the newer cards with DDR3 or DDR5 run cooler and will be more easily cooled with a heatsink only. The card in that link has heatpipes which run to the top so it looks good but "looks" and real llife are not the same

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Well, since extreme gaming is out of the question, onboard graphics would be the way to go, saves you having to buy a card, and it wont be loud.

Watch your clearances with passive cards equipped with heatpipes, some of those pipes protrude off the back of the board a fair way and can obstruct the adjacent 1xPCiE slot a lot of boards place beside the Graphics PCiE slot.

I've seen a few which are double-width cards in truth, but are not described as such.

My earlier suggestion was food for thought; I don't use the full potential of my card, however it does keep me nicely cosseted with twin DVi outputs at high resolution and visibly superior movie playback and TV handling as compared to what I previously had under the hood. My rig is used for video editing and serves as a network data node for all the other machines in the loop.

That's what I'm thinking.

The card I found in the original post looks like it IS a double width card. I have thought of this. I will have to consider this. This is a pain in the butt. It's a challenge I guess.

Spose so, but its really what you think would be effective with the client.

I'd also consider the onboard route at first. After all they'll almost certainly be a PCiE slot on the mainboard for upgrade options in reality. You'll need to match the board to whichever case (and front ports) you have in mind for the project - and I'm sure you will find suitable offerings are out there

That's the problem. I am used to P45 and P55 chipsets. I don't know how the others stack up. That's whay I ask the question to others who have gone through this before.

Is the G45 any good? I would also like to go with DDR3 RAM but there are not many options out there. I would like this machine to last a while for the users. The way DDR2 is skyrocketing in price, it seems to make sense anyway. You're getting a lot of performance going from DDR2 800 to DDR3 1600 and they are not far apart in price. This is another reason I am having trouble finding the components.

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100264HDMI Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Low Profile Ready Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100234HDMI Radeon HD 3450 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100252HDMI Radeon HD 4550 512MB 64-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Low Profile Ready Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

any of these will outperform the G45 as well as the fact that you can keep system RAM and have full 8 ch, audio right on the card.