Passive NVidia card for a HTPC

[Caesium]

Hey everyone.

I've just bought myself a HP Microserver with the intention of using it as a NAS and HTPC since it's low power and nice and quiet (not bothered by how chunky it looks).

It's up and working as a NAS but the next bit is HTPC - for this I need a decent card that'll manage 1080p offload. The likely HTPC software target is XBMC on Ubuntu.
I've read that XBMC doesn't play too nicely with ATi cards so I'm looking for an NVidia. 3D capabilities are irrelevant, the lower power the better really.

So, ultimately to the question - does anyone have this case with a passive NVidia that fits in it? Can anyone recommend a purchase? If you have one, you'll know space is pretty tight, it needs to be low profile and single width (I think).

Suggestions gratefully received

[Terbinator]

Going passive is going to cost you more. I would just go for a fan one, i can't see it being that loud on low-power cards like these.

Not to mention passive ones tend to be double slot due to the room needed for the heatsink.

[shufty84]

I was personally looking around for a low end ATi for the same purpose but looking at nVidia's offerings you're quite limited.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=LN32337
Usually come with a low profile adapter which could either have a separate bracket for the vga or a dual slot low profile bracket (like the HD5450 i got does) or there is

http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=LN31532
no HDMI out but will definitely fit. could always completely remove the vga from it, leaving you with a DVI out which is preferable.

As for ATi/AMD offerings, there's a lot more choice.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=LN31922
HDMI out, low profile and passive. not the one i got but the cheapest in the 5450 category and XFX are great. 6 more to choose from that are low profile in the 5450 range.

I got the Asus which as i said has the dual low profile bracket so i'm gonna have to break out the knife and vice to bend that of neatly

[Caesium]

Yeah I'll need a HDMI. Your top link doesn't have HDMI either shufty84? The microserver has no onboard sound, and the two pci-e will be taken by this graphics card and a network card (onboard network is a bit crummy) - so unless I can get HDMI in there it'll be a usb sound setup

The only one I can find which closely fits the bill is Scan LN35479 (sorry, can't post links yet) and it does indeed have a fan.

[bignellrp]

I recommend just getting an all in one device like a zbox. They have it all onboard and perform better than any other htpc i've seen. Full 1080p wmvs play perfectly while running apache2, mysql and other services in the background.

http://www.zotacusa.com/products/mini-pcs/zbox

i have the ZOTAC ZBOX Intel Celeron SU2300 1.2 GHz Dual-Core as is comes with DDR3 slots and is reviewed to perform better due to the Celeron cpu with XBMC compared with the atom.