i'm building a new pc for a neighbor and i got him hooked on "silent" computing. he is wondering what type of video card he should get. He does game a little but he only plays old school games and maybe things such as Starcraft II, madden or other sports games. What is the ideal graphics card for him? He is willing to buy a card and install an aftermarket hs onto it if need be. Cost is a factor for him but i think 100-150 total cost of card or card + heatsink is his range.

If you have decent airflow in your case, you could go passive (check you have enough space to fit the cards),
GIGABYTE GV-R675SL-1GI Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card $120
GIGABYTE GV-R677SL-1GD Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $139
PowerColor SCS3 AX6850 1GBD5-S3DH Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $205

If you want nvidia, the highest i seen passive with in your $150 budget, is the
SPARKLE SXS4501024D5SNP GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $150