Upgrade fileserver to HTPC (video card reco)

Hello All,

Currently I have a fileserver running Ubuntu Server 12.04.02. It is headless, and I am considering just dropping in a videocard to use it for HTPC uses.
Here's what it has:
i5 750 (no onboard video)
Low end asus mobo
8 GBs of low end ram
7 Western Digital Green drives hooked up in soft-raid (mdadm)


It has a nice CPU cooler on it that I can run passive if Im not doing number crunching on the machine.

Currently the machine is pretty quiet and I'd like to keep it that way.

I am thinking that I could use a card like this:

GT610


Are there better options?

What is the best way to upgrade from 12.04 server edition to a direct-to-XBMC version of Ubuntu. Obviously I know apt-get install xbmc. But that won't give me the minimal XBMCbuntu like interface, no?


Thanks!