HP Quad-Core i7 Desktop w/ Blu-ray

Does the motherboard support SLI so one could add another video card to this rig?

This is sort of a deal?
You can purchase it directly from HP for 800, base with the same HD, memory and processor. Upgrading to the bluray drive and graphics, though, put HPs up to 1079.99, making this a deal, assuming you want those things.

The benchmarks for the CPU are quite decent,

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-3770+%40+3.40GHz

Actually it’s a pretty good deal, the graphics card in there adds another 130 dollars from HP’s website. You’re saving at least 50 by getting Woot’s deal.

But the card can be purchased on its own for $99 all day long.

This is a very lukewarm deal for not that great of a machine.

Also, the HP site will add TAX to your order, which makes this a good $200-$300 cheaper than ordering over there.

Highly doubtful on an OEM rig.

Plus, the GT 640 is not a very good card. Running a second in SLI won’t get you very far.

The GeForce GT 640 is the new Kepler architecture but the lowest model of it you can get. Max power is 65w on it though. But dont expect to much from a card that retails under $100

No, You need two PCI(16) slots to SLI or Crossfire.

Dream on:
(1) PCI Express X16 Slots (occupied)

To be fair, xtravbx, this is a very decent deal for a machine that will operate in the top 90% of all OEM built desktops currently on the market.

Um Yeah, “decent” as in “just about fastest processor you can get without completely blowing your entire system budget on the CPU alone.”

Sure it would be nice if it were a little lower priced, but it’s already an ok savings and it’s new with 2-year warranty.

Of course one could custom build a better system for more money, but for folks who want a good performer with a full system warranty and without all the extra work, this actually looks pretty attractive. So what if you might need to click “uninstall” a couple times for some unwanted bloatware it probably comes with (although I’d be surprised if it weren’t still pretty snappy even with all that).

The first thing I’d probably do is add an SSD and load the OS on that though (I’ve had good luck with Crucial M4, and 128GB is probably plenty for just the boot disk). That would immediately make the system feel 10x faster in normal use. The 1TB disk could then become a secondary drive for extra data.

I do have one question though, I’m assuming it should be SATA3, but I don’t see that actually listed in the specs. Is that a safe assumption.

Edit: Looks like Z75 chipset, so it should have two SATA III ports.

This is NOT a gaming PC, and won’t perform that great for gaming considering it’s a $900 PC.

The i7 3770 is great for heavy multitaskers or video editing who need to get a ton out of their processor. However for gaming, an i7 gives zero advantages over an i5, so you’re paying an extra $100 for the i7 with no increase in gaming performance (this is because all the i7 has over the i5 is hyperthreading, which games do not use, and in some cases hyperthreading can actually hurt gaming performance).

The most important thing in a gaming PC, by far, is the gpu. The 640 in this PC, is not a very good card at all. It’s a budget gpu meant for really light gaming. Here’s some benchmarks for that card; when playing Battlefield 3 at 1920x1080 with LOW settings, it can’t even average 30fps. That is awful.

I just don’t want anyone to think they’re buying a gaming PC if they buy this HP, it’s a multitasking cpu-heavy machine, and a decent PC if that’s what you’re looking for. Get an i3-2120 and a radeon 6850 for way less than this and it will give you double the gaming performance.

Also, if anyone’s curious, the total cost of all the parts in this PC is $717 after MIR’s (edit: can’t get the link to work)

I suppose you meant top 10%

Including the OS, WiFi, card reader, keyboard/mouse, 2 year warranty on all parts, and shipping & handling and/or tax? Probably not.

Of course with this, you don’t have the option to exclude some of those things to reduce the price, and for some it might make more sense to go with a cheaper CPU and more expensive GPU, but not for everyone.

I think you can build a decent gaming rig for $900, but yes, this isn’t one. I however find it interesting that this gfx card can drive 3 displays simultaneously. I haven’t seen a low-end card do that in a long time.

This would make a good HTPC given the graphics card and blu-ray. Or even a powerful all-around desktop for photo/video editing given the strong CPU. But no, not worth it for gaming.

Contrary to the marketing, this machine sucks for gaming. Hint: it’s not about the CPU, it’s all about the video card, and the one it comes with is complete garbage for games.

I also don’t get the inclusion of a blu-ray drive instead of more hard drive space either. This machine is just too big and office looking to be in the living room.

This is an overpriced weird machine that tries to be doing a lot of things, and doing all of them poorly.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say this system would suck for gaming, but it’s certainly not ideal for it.

It’s a decent deal for what you’re getting, but the CPU really is overkill for almost any task (gaming included). With the exception of heavy compute tasks, like video converting, 3D modeling, or other intense workstation stuff, the benefits of a Core i7 go mostly untapped.

If I were building a new gaming rig today, I’d probably opt for a 3rd gen Core i5, the 3570k perhaps. Compared to a Core i7, that saves about $100 which can then be better spent on a beefier video card.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for a decent gaming rig, your money could be better spent elsewhere. If you’re looking for a general-use computer, you don’t need to spend this much. If you want something for really heavy duty computing, this is a pretty good deal, especially if you make use of the Blu-ray drive.

Alright, so if this isn’t such a great $800 rig for gaming, anyone got links to one that is?