If you're a casual gamer building up a Home Theater PC, there are several things you want from a graphics board. Galaxy's GeForce 7300 GT Silent aims to fill all of these requirements, but how does it fare? The chaps over at EliteBastard take a look:

We've seen in the past how the GeForce 7300 GT rules the roost at its price point (albeit in the form of a heftily overclocked and improved version, also from Galaxy), and at the time of writing this remains the case, at least until the Radeon X1300 XT hits the shelves. Despite its passive cooling, Galaxy have still managed to raise the core and memory clock speeds on this board 50MHz apiece, giving it a further edge in the performance stakes. If you're a casual gamer who fancies the odd blast with the latest titles, and is happy to stick with 1024x768 with a smattering of anti-aliasing here and there, then the GeForce 7300 GT does a grand job of delivering your wishes without breaking the bank.

If you're looking to build a Home Theater PC, then this part also delivers in the video playback department too, adequately accelerating all content be it MPEG-2 or the latest High Definition H.264 videos. Add that to the passive cooler that makes the GeForce 7300 GT Silent what it is, and you have a very tempting part for the HTPC crowd. The only potential downside here is the dual slot nature of the cooler - If you're building a slimline HTPC system you might find yourself a little cramped for space, so it's something to bear in mind. If you have the required room though, Galaxy's offering here is indeed silent and efficient, making it an ideal choice for anyone who wants to blend high quality video playback with the odd blast of gaming.