Wanting to buy a desktop to be used for gaming and other tasks. While I'm not illiterate when it comes to using a computer, I don't know too much about hardware stuff. (see? calling it "stuff" kinda proves it.)
After much research and comparing bigger, more specialized brands I think I've found a desktop thats right for me.

HP Envy Phoenix h9-1420t
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Desktops/HP-ENVY-Phoenix/C9D62AV?HP-ENVY-Phoenix-h9-1420t-Desktop-PC
If you click on Customize & Buy you will find the different options to be put in it. I'm going with i7 3770 cpu (3.4 ghz), 2 gb gtx680 gpu, and I want 12 gb of ram, but there's one of my questions. There's two options for 12gb: DDR3 1600 mhz (2 DIMMs) and DDR3 1333 mhz (3 DIMMs). They cost the same. I know dimm stands for dual inline memory module, but how does that compare with the mhz? (also, is the number of mhz the speed? ... see, these are the things i wish i knew more about.) If 1600 mhz is faster or better than why would the number of inline memory modules matter as much and would one perform better than the other?

All in all I'll probably end up paying a tad over $1600 including tax and shipping and all that. I know that's a lot cheaper than, say, alienware or some others. I also know those are more customizable with things like over clocking and that sort of thing. But I'm not really interested in that because, again, I don't really know what I'm doing with the inside components. Also I don't really wanna build my own, even tho that could be even cheaper.

And what about windows 8? I've read a lot of people don't like it. And it looks more like it's for a tablet/phone than a pc, so... I dunno. What do you think? That computer only ships with W8 installed. If I so chose, could I install Windows 7 later? Would that have a negative effect on anything?

I'm expecting to play skyrim and other bethesda games (well, and others that aren't bethesda) and assume that that fairly beastly rig will be able to keep up, but do you have suggestions for me? Will that computer at least be relevent for a few years to come? I've read reviews of the computer that said there's not really room for future upgrading to like dual video cards... I'm sure upgrading would be a great thing to be able to do... Man, I just feel ignorant and kinda helpless. I certainly don't want to put down that much money to find out it was a huge mistake.
Do you see any flaws in my judgement as far as the performance (or anything else) would go?

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1433825-unofficial-will-my-pc-run-skyrim-thread-62-w-hardware-guide/

See there if you want to know how a specific configuration will run the game.

If you want shopping help, see the Tech Thread in Community Discussion.