I wouldn't call a GTX660 low end, or do you mean by that that it's a old card?

Well it's not too expensive, and it doesn't need any glueing, that's rather well thought of. Something like this would still need good case ventilation. The question is, how good does it perform? Will it win any substantial gains over buying something like the passive 750Ti? Can it handle a stock 960 without the fan, for instance? Will we see a short review of this, Hilbert? 🙂

Well it's not too expensive, and it doesn't need any glueing, that's rather well thought of. Something like this would still need good case ventilation. The question is, how good does it perform? Will it win any substantial gains over buying something like the passive 750Ti? Can it handle a stock 960 without the fan, for instance? Will we see a short review of this, Hilbert? 🙂

It looks like a 660 has a 140w tdp. a gtx 960 has a 120w tdp ,and a 970 has a 145w tdp so it looks like you could run a 960 on this thing hmm... fully passive gaming rig/ htpc anyone? I wonder if there is a case out there that could use convection to get enough airflow.

Hardest part is the PSU, passive ones are limited in wattage and expensive. Best bet you would probably need a fanned psu and some case fans if you went for a fanless cpu as well.

A SilverStone nj520 would work as the 970 wants 500w, and you would need a case that is mostly mesh and uses the fact that heat rises to get some airflow. idk I just think it would be cool.

Hardest part is the PSU, passive ones are limited in wattage and expensive. Best bet you would probably need a fanned psu and some case fans if you went for a fanless cpu as well.

Well... i'd have to say this whole scenario has some potential. Using this GPU heatsink, you could supposedly use even a GTX 960 and have it passively cooled. You have the option of going with a fanless PSU, but as you said, they're usually quite expensive and limited in wattage. You could also go with a very efficient PSU that only turns the fan on when needed (like i believe my current Silverstone 550W does) and have basically silent unless under load. For the PSU you could get away with a self-contained water cooling system with something like a 140 or 240 radiator and throw some nice and silent fans on it. To be honest... you could get a NEARLY silent, yet still fantastic performing system, just by working with what can be done. Could even do it in something like my BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX case with a 230mm fan up front for cool air intake to keep everything fresh, and set up your motherboard to only turn the front fan on if the CPU temp climbs above a certain level.... which is also what i do. Then if you're using it just for some movie watching or web browsing, it'll be pretty much silent... but start some gaming, and you'll get some nice airflow around everything.

It looks like a 660 has a 140w tdp. a gtx 960 has a 120w tdp ,and a 970 has a 145w tdp so it looks like you could run a 960 on this thing hmm... fully passive gaming rig/ htpc anyone? I wonder if there is a case out there that could use convection to get enough airflow.

Something like this...? http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/No-Fan-CS-60.html REVIEW [YOUTUBE]DezNtDZYQBQ[/YOUTUBE]