I would never say you should steer clear of any brand.  I have owned parts from Intel, Nvidia, and AMD:  They all make quality parts.  Just make sure you double check the competition.

For instance an Intel i3 looks great until you realize that the AMD FX-6300 is the same price and outperforms it in most new games while destroying it in demanding ones (Crysis 3).

Best price performers from weakest to strongest:

CPU: $50 Celeron <  Athlon II x4 750K < Phenom II x4 965 < FX-6300 < FX-8320 < i5-3570k < i7-3770K

GPU: HD 7770 < HD 7790 <  HD 7850 / GTX 650Ti Boost < HD 7870 GHz < HD 7950 < HD 7970

No bias, those are just your best price/performers right now.

This. Fx 6300 on sale for 110 newegg. 8gb ram on sale for 55 newegg. G43 shoukd be fine (works great for me) can usually be had for 60.
Scratch the ssd for now. Still gotta buy windows for 90 dollars. Scratch the gtx 660 and get a gtx 650 ti for 140 newegg. Should be just over 550 dollars. Add a 35 dollar case and you are at 600. Cant get much cheaper than that.

I only need to buy the innards of the CPU. I already have a power supply, mouse, monitor, keyboard, case, etc. That's why $500.

Do you already have a case, mouse, and keyboard? Are you planning on gaming online over wifi? $500 will probably get you a mid to low level build, which won't be good enough for any high end games in the near future. You'll be fine with older games though, so it depends on what you're planning on playing.

Can someone explain this stuff as if he were explaining it to a child?

I'm totally clueless about what you guys are saying :O

soo... If I want to play Rome 2 at 60fps at max (or close to max) settings, what do I need to do? Just list that as cheaply as possible. :D

amd vs intel... I said "at the moment". My 2001 box was AMD. My 2008 is Intel. My 2013 or 2014 if I just wait longer will likely be Intel if all remains as it currently is now. Now being that Intel runs better, runs cooler, runs on less power and the price is minimally different in most cases.

If you can't follow what has been written in this thread, then you probably need to do a bit more research before you slap a computer together. While its not uber-complicated it does require some good research.

People are saying go Intel with qualifiers.  Certainly not everybody has $1,000 to spend but even with an Intel PC, you still don't need to spend $1,000 anyway.  However, some people do want the best and until we know the budget or have some idea of what they intend to do with the PC, you pick what is best...which since 2006 has been Intel.

If resolution is low enough, as we now know it's just 1680 x 1050, then an AMD CPU will likely be fine....outside of very CPU intensive games.  I referenced and i7 earlier merely to show that even the top end mainstream Intel isn't all that expensive.  Do you need an i7 to game?  No.  Would it be a good choice to have 3-4 years down the road if you don't intend to upgrade by then?  Probably would be.   Never build just for today.  I build PC's for a living.  And unless someone is on a majorly tight budget, I almost always suggest Intel.  That extra $50-$100 (CPU and Mobo) might take a few more weeks to save up for but will extend the life of the PC much longer than the time it took to save up to begin with.

But he's saying he has $500 to spend on just the CPU.   With that in mind, I suggest a high end AMD and spend the difference on a good cooler, RAM and upper mid range GPU (resolution being what it is).

And agreed about the PSU.  Everyone should pay serious attention to the quality of the PSU they buy.  Hard to go wrong with something like Seasonic.

Oop, g43 has no SLI. I was wondering what the difference was

Been better in what? Yes top intel CPU beats top AMD cpu... but not everyone buys the top level gear.   The money you can save by using AMD CPUs to get the performance you need and not overspend on something you don't you can invest in things like SSd's and better GPUs. To me getting more for your money is the better option as long as you get the performance you need...

In terms of building a rig for gaming, any gaming rigs under 1000 dollars make a very good case for AMD CPUs. AMD CPU performance tops out at around 3570k with the FX8350 and if you observe gaming performance after 3570k, its diminishing returns all the way. 

Once you get in to SLI, multimonitors then Intel starts being a better investment but with most games that came out in the last 2 years and beyond, any quad core AMD can do the job fairly well as long as its single 1080p screen gaming.

Few months ago I was briefly using a Radeon HD 7950 from my main rig with an Athlon X4 645 that was in my media PC for shits and giggles, and for something like Tomb Raider, Bioshock infinite, Max Payne...@1080p, GPU is still the main bottleneck.