FPS mousing from the sofa

[Yorkieshaman]

Seeking some opinions here as to the best course of action.

I've wanted a Blu-ray player for a while, and since I really want multi-region and Profile 2.0, that means building a HTPC and connecting it up to my telly sounds like the way to go. No problem: get a parts list together, build the thing, jobs a good 'un.

But: Battlefield 3 and a couple of other decent PC games are on the horizon and my current games PC won't handle them: I built it around the Battlefield 2142 time (whever that was).

So I'm wondering whether to:
1. Build a cheap, bare-bones HTPC for the lounge and a separate mid-range (£600 or so) games PC for upstairs OR
2. Combine them both into one box and play PC games on the telly (HD 1080p, has VGA input).

2 is more appealing and would work out cheaper, but I see two problems:

Firstly it's easy to build a virtually silent HTPC (or at least it sounds easy from reading stuff on here). But games PCs don't usually need to be silent. This one would need to be or it'll be buzzing and whirring away during films. With water cooling and a good PSU, is it possible to build a fast but very quiet games PC? Or something with two modes that cranks up the fans etc. when gaming but drops down to a low power, low noise mode when just playing a disc?

Secondly, the sofa and telly are great for playing on a 360, but how do other people find PC gaming in the lounge (presuming other people are trying it?). Do you use a lap tray or something with a wireless mouse? Does it work, or is it still nowhere near as good as using a desk/monitor/mouse pad/mouse for FPSs? I can see mousing on your knee being fine for browsing the web, but a bit pants for trying to pick off headshots.

All thoughts appreciated

[AntiTalent]

Any saving you think you'll get by having 1 box will get mullered by going Water to keep it quiet. Bear in mind you'll need a GPU block almost certainly (though Cat The Fifth just posted a link with a passive 4770, which looks quite capable - though not quite 1080p material..xfire?).

Also I've no idea about the mouse question, but if you're seriously into gaming, I'd prefer to grab a 2-5ms screen than try using a TV. Though if You've got room you could just have a comp desk off to one side and have 2 monitors, just switch to the tv for films and media/casual and go to the monitor when needed - also saves arguments if a certain other half wants to watch tv when you're in the middle of fragging/browsing.

[TooNice]

I have built something with similar goal recently. You do not need water to have a very quiet PC. It probably takes a lot of effort to get one virtually silent, but it's not hard getting one quieter than your console or, in my case, my projector. You need to be careful when you pick your DVD/Blu-ray player though, as my DVD-ROM is definitely the loudest thing when it's spinning. At the moment, I don't have much time for gaming, and I must admit that I am not too sure how I should setup to get the most comfortable mouse/keyboard setup. But this is at least in part of the limited space in my room (main reason I am going for an all-in-one approach). I reckon that I'll be making use of my lapdesk but I'd like to hear how other deal with this aspect too.

[sadbuttrue]

How big is the TV and how close will you be? PC FPS gaming tends to have a different distance requirement than console gaming. For example, FPS games on the PC have most of us sitting at arms length from ~22inch screens. With consoles one can sit a good 8ft from a 32" screen.

I've tried PC FPS gaming on the sofa (using a trolley/tray thing I threw together) with my projector, but wasn't overly impressed. Casual gaming is fine, but the arms feel constrained, at the wrong angle and overall less reactive. I found using my PC chair with the trolley/tray worked quite well tho, once you get over the open space issue (it feels somewhat naked away from the desk ).

[Yorkieshaman]

Thanks everybody: great info. I'll likely go with the two PC option.