That is basically my strategy:
1. Larger more powerful PC for heavier "enthusiast workloads" and general work (connected to multiple monitors)
2. Smaller and more quiet secondary PC for lighter "enthusiast workloads" (connected to TV).
For #2, I am looking to compare my budget LGA 771 Xeons (and GT 630) in a refurbed Pre-built SFF PC to any new low power desktop processors coming from Intel and AMD on various metrics. At first this may seem a bit apples and oranges, but when I factor in cost the LGA 771 and GT 630 will likely be cheaper than the new Intel and AMD low power budget desktop processors. Of course, that still leaves performance, noise and power consumption as a few of the remaining metrics (certainly the new tech will do well in the last two categories).
For me PC #1 is a 5930K with 16GB of DDR4 and a 780 Ti GHz and PC #2 is a 4770 with 16GB of DDR3 and HD 4600. Both have the balls to be more or less interchangeable in terms of grunt, so either way I'm not stuck with something slow.