Hey guys,
I currently have a hp pavilion dv6 but it's driving me nuts that I can't upgrade anything on it. So I have decided I am going to get a pc desktop. I currently don't know much about them so I am after alittle help to get me started. I am after a system that is pretty much good to go and if I need to upgrade something it wont require upgrading the whole lot.
I am currently looking at:

Intel Core i7 2700K CPU - 3.5GHz
Gigabyte / Asus Z68 Motherboard
16GB DDR3-1600MHz RAM
1TB SATA3 7200RPM Hard Disk
BluRay Combo Drive
2 x ATI HD6970 2GB PCI-e in Crossfire configuration
Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case
Thermaltake Tough Power XT 875W PSU

It is for $2000 but I am not sure if thats a rip off or not and if its a good starter pc or not.
Thanks a lot.

if I need to upgrade something it wont require upgrading the whole lot

Unfortunately the way upgrading works these days is that you can only upgrade to the same shit that was already out when you built the computer, other than adding more ram/drives, etc.. Because the motherboards, video cards, and ram keep changing just enough to force you to buy all 3 at once.

You have picked pretty high end specs, so great if you can afford it, but if you wanted to go anything cheaper - it is possible.

Your current computer is a laptop, but you haven't mentioned purchasing a monitor/mouse/keyboard/headphones - these are the things you'll actually be looking at and touching while playing the games, so figure out how high you wanna go with those.

Also what about network connectivity for the PC? I think your mobo has ethernet - but what abotu wifi? Not sure, look into it.

last edited by thermite at 12:58:43 12/Jan/12

2x vid cards is overkill... and I doubt that PSU would really be able to provide sufficiently for that rig on it's own let alone adding any more HDD's (SSD or otherwise)

In my experience, buy a better single video card rather than two.

Check the +12V output of that Thermaltake PSU... it's usually the first choke point in 700W+ PSU's.

Antec 900 is a big case... and it's all mesh... unless you live in a laboratory, it will be full of dust (negating the effectiveness of the cooling option to begin with) in less than 6 months.

I thoroughly recommend looking at the Silverstone PSU's as they've got some monstrous performance considering what you pay for em, and I've recently switched to a Silverstone Raven RV01 Case. Whilst I don't think I'd recommend *this* case, I'd certainly suggest to anyone not looking to watercool, to take a gander at the Silverstone 'vertical motherboard' cases. (Fortress series for example).
Simply switching the back plate for the m/b from the back to the top of the case does wonders for cooling... hot air rises, so why load all of your accessory cards horizontally...

My much much worse comp can smash nearly every game on the market still, so that'd be fine, might even suffer from overheating which has always been a big problem for me (be sure to always get a solid PSU, and a case with good airflow + room for fans).

For comparison I have -
3gb of mismatched ddr2 ram
A quadcore cpu from 2007 or so
A 'super cheap crappy edition' motherboard something like half a decade old
A kickass radeon HD5850 which brings the whole system up. ;)

Played skyrim on whatever settings with no problems at all, the town marketh was the only place with a bit of crappiness.

If your budget is $2k, drop a video card and put in a 240 or 120GB SSD to boot from.

You're going to want more than 120GB to put stuff on.

i probably would drop it down to an i52600k, there is nothing that would tax that processor atm (and unless you are looking at sli'ing a few gtx580's the video card will be a natural bottle neck (and really wide bottle neck)

Intel I5 2600k
Z68 M.board,
8gb ram
Nvidia GTX570
1tb HDD
120gb Solid state HDD

Thats pretty much what you should be aiming for... It will handle all current games at Ultra settings and save a lot more money.

No need for the specs you have been given that PC is Overkill and by the time games/software catch up to your hardware the price would have dropped.

Dont get me wrong its a good price its just not necessary to aim that high.... sales person looking for big sale imho.

I have an ages old IDE for my OS. :/

I have an ages old IDE for my OS. :/

Yeh same keep pushing my upgrade back a month....dam christmas emptied my upgrade fund....looking to upgrade in another month.

Been distracted by MW3 on xbox so happy to wait till prices drop further and will move gaming back to my PC....

(Yep I said it xbox lol)

I had a Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case and just upgraded to a Fractal R3.

Fractal is way better!

for gaming the video card will be taxed more than the CPU (and a 570 will handle it all without reaching it's limits, so the CPU isn't going to be worked hard at all)

lol, way to revive a 2 month dead thread Bobbly.

'Each to their own' I say whoop.

For my money, the 'performance return vs money spent' doesn't add up for two video cards (especially if the 2 vid cards are going to cost you more than 1 'better' video card.

I'm running 1xSSD (OS) 1xRaptor (previous OS disk, now I use it to install games onto) and 2x 7200 500GB's in RAID 0 in my primary rig, and it sings! My comp is 2 years old now, but still devours anything I ask it to run!

I just wish the games would pick up in quality a little... (tho I'm really enjoying smaller indie/casual games these days, I'd still prefer to see some solid AAA releases...)

yeah it happens if you're on ausgamers.