$17,000 PC/Xbox 360 gaming rig released

Though there's a recession on, some gamers still spend buckets of ducats to get top-performance gaming rigs. Custom PC specialist Origin is reaching out to just such a spendthrift demographic with its latest system--cheekily named "The Big O"--which combines both a high-end PC and an Xbox 360 slim in a single, extremely expensive box.

On the PC side, the Big O is customizable, with one or two six-core, 12-thread Intel Xeon X5680 CPUs which can be overclocked to 4.3 Ghz on a ASUS Rampage III Extreme Motherboard. It also boasts a SLI multi-GPU configuration, which can have up to four GeForce GTX 480 FTW graphics cards. Up to 12GB of RAM can be given to device, all versions of which have 2TB hard drives, liquid cooling systems, and customizable cases.

Two things make the Big O unique in today's gaming market. First is its inclusion of an entire Xbox 360 slim, also liquid-cooled, inside the same box. Second is the device's whopping price. The entry-level model, which has a single CPU and GPU, rings up at $7,669. The version recently featured in CPU magazine, which boasts two CPUs and four GPUS amongst other features, rings up at a whopping $16,999--as much as a low-end new car or a round-the-world vacation.