1.) I heard that AMD makes processors that have built in graphics cards. The guy I spoke to recommended this: AMD Trinity A10-5800k x4 Processor Socket Fm2 4.2Ghz Black Edition. My concern is, this thing seems incredibly cheap compared with a separate processor and graphics card. Does this kind of setup produce good performance or is this guy just dicking around with me? How much difference is it with separate processor and graphics?

2.) If your answer to question 1 is that it's shitty, then what do you recommend? I'm not looking for top of the line, I want the best value for money that can play Rome 2 and FFXIV very nicely with high settings.

3.) Is Windows 8 good at all?

1) Integrated graphics are not good enough for those games, you will need discrete graphics if you want to play things like Rome 2

2) Something around a 760 should produce good results. I have a 670 and despite the issues with Rome II, I am running it alright on Ultra (though I haven't tried extreme). I am less familiar on AMD cards

3) It's great! It really doesn't make any difference to Windows 7 in a negative way and if you want to ignore the Metro stuff, put the desktop link in the top left of the start menu and double click enter when you log in. Windows 8 will probably be better for gaming in the future, but I don't think that will be too signifcant

I wouldn't pick AMD over Intel. At the moment the Intel CPUs blow away AMD. Additionally, you should NOT go with integrated GPU if you want best possible gaming experience.

I just put together a good build for about $800 (on NewEgg) that should run Battlefield 4 (as an example) extremely well with a Haswell i5, 670 (2GB GDDR5), 8B DDR3 (3000oc) and Win8 for the new DX stuff.

I kinda wanted to walk away from WinPCs but I also kinda want to play BF4 and my last build was in 2008 so its about time to upgrade and give away the even older 2001 build I still have downstairs.

1. Never use an integrated GPU if you plan to do any serious gaming with modern games. Intel CPU's are also much better for gaming these days but do cost a little more. But at ~$300 for an unlocked i7, it's not that expensive anyway.

2. Cannot answer without knowing your budget and the resolution of your monitor.

3. Windows 8.1 (and a few tweaks) have made a drastic difference in my acceptance of Windows 8. I still prefer 7 but 8.1 with a few tweaks is now wholly acceptable as a daily use operating system.

Yea, don't go with the APU. If you are on a tight budget, get something like an AMD FX6300. This will deliver more than enough performance (Sure, intels are quicker, but how much of this additional speed will a normal user even realize...aka are they worth the money in this case).

As for GPU's, Newegg has some good ones on sale now, such as a GTX 660TI and a Radeon HD7950 for about $200.

Finally, Windows 8 is fine. The only thing I've noticed is if you are building your own pc, careful with wifi cards/chips...major compatibility issues in regards to those. So if you do go Windows 8, I'd suggest you use wired internet if at all possible. I also urge you NOT to upgrade to the Windows 8.1 preview. I wound up having to run a game in compatibility mode because it would not work in it, and I lost a lot of the options for my Graphics card.

$300...plus a $150 Z87 motherboard...so $450.

Orrrrr, he could just get an AMD for $110, buy a $60 motherboard, and be out...$170 ($280 less). The difference? His games will probably run at >60 fps instead of... >60 fps + 10...who cares. An i7 for gaming is incredibly overkill.

My budget is around... $500 for the whole CPU. I already have a monitor. The default resolution is 1650x1050 (21 inches).

Can you build around that then? Value for money specs.

1) He's right unless you are making a $350 mega-budget build.  (It would still play BF4 well, though just barily) 

2) The 7950 = 760 and it is $40 cheaper and has the 3GB of Vram BF4 reccomends. 

3) Yep Windows 8 is great unless you want WMC.

500$ won't get you much even at extreme bottom it will run
100$ for a good gaming mouse keyboard
60$ for a power supply
50$ case
40$ CPU cooler
100$ hard drive non ssd unless u go 128gb(ssd destroy reg hdd for any purpose)
100$ for a motherboard
100$ for a garbage amd processor
250$ for an intel core i7 probably 190$ for an i5
100$ for ram which should be no less than 8 if not 16 gb 1600mhz
150$ gpu I wouldn't go under the 660 and if possible go 670 or better. For the resolution you are going to run you don't need to much video ram.
No offense it's just not possible unless you are going to get a bundled amd set from new egg for 450$ round a bout then you still need to get the gpu and some other parts. O yeah you also would need a blu-ray/DVD / cd player or burner. Not to mention you need to buy the windows 8 software that will run 100$. Either way good luck

Lol...I really don't get why everyone is saying go intel?

Not everyone is spending $1000+ dollars on a PC. There should be a rule around here saying that people who haven't used AMD CPUs and tested games, shouldn't give CPU advice.

If you're building a rig under a 500-600 dollars, AMD FX processors are more than a viable option.
Something like the FX-6300 for $120 and an MSI G46 SLI/Crossfire motherboard for 80 bucks will beat anything Intel at same price range. Especially since you can overclock any AMD processor to 4.5 Ghz.

I'd personally try to stretch my budget to about $600 and I'd get:
FX6300 - $120
MSI G46 mobo - $80
8 GB of RAM - $70
Small 64 GB SSd for boot/1TB for storage - $100
Good brand name PSU - $50
GTX 660 - $180

These prices are what we have in Canada, don't know what its like where you live...

You can add another GTX 660 down the road when you have for SLI as long as you get a decent 600Watt PSU.