I would suggest the AMD FX 8320 for the CPU.

With Ram, go for 8Gb if your budget is thin, don't need anymore than that for gaming today, in a few years, maybe.

If you can, step the GPU up to a Radeon 7950. :)

And don't forget the SSD!
If you still have cash left over, invest in a Corsair Hydro cooler for the CPU, the AMD FX CPU's beg to be overclocked. (And it is rather simple and safe if you know what you're doing.)

No, no, no. People keep suggesting stuff, ignoring the $500 budget. Go with the following:

FX 6300: $110 (Sales on newegg for this price all the time)
Radeon HD 7870: $175 (Generally sales for this price all the time)
Windows 8: $90 (Either newegg or tigerdirect will have for this price or cheaper)
8 GB Ram: $60 (Don't go with a crazy off brand, get corsair or kingstom or something that is on sale for around 60)
MSI G43 Motherboard: $60 (Generally can be had on sale for around $60)
Total so far: $495
As it is, you hardly have any money left for a hard drive, but should be able to get a 1tb 7200 rpm drive for about $30-$40 on sale online.

You have no room to go with anything more (but there really is no huge need to...besides the hard drive, this is the same as my computer, and mine is fast as hell)

The AMD FX-8170 or FX-8350 would equal an i5-3570.   But they'd also cost as much or more than the i5 too.

If the guy is telling you that you need 16 GB of RAM, he must be making a commission on sales (or doesn't know what he's talking about).   Unless you are doing heavy video work, major image editing or running a bunch fo virtual machines, you don't need more than 8 GB.  And even 4 GB would be fine (Just buy 2 sticks of 2GB to run in dual channel if you do go that route).

I can find the FX 8350 cheaper than the i5-3570 (Non-K). :)
The i5 3570 is $210.
The 8-core/4-module FX 8320 is $160 and the 8350 is $200 in the US of A.
The FX 8320 will easily hit 4-4.2ghz on stock volts. (Much akin to my FX 8120.)

I would still go with an Intel quaddy though, just for those rare but fun lightly threaded, but CPU heavy games. (Like ALL Blizzard games, Sins of a Solar empire etc'.)
If you run things like Xsplit or run a dirty PC with over 9000 programs in the system tray on system boot, then, don't even think twice, get the FX.

Definately dont go with 16gb of ram, most games still dont even use 4gb, and very rarely do they use more than that. 8gb would propably be the optimal amount considering consoles have that much also.

Nothing wrong with AMD, propably very smart choice considering developers will start working more with lot more AMD cores thanks to the consoles. I would recommend going for FX 8320 CPU, it's about the same as 8350 (especially overclocked, though dont do that yourself if u dont have any idea what u doing).

SSD is mostly just convenience with less space, so really upto u if u want to get one over HDD.

7870 is a great value choice for GPU =)


Just make sure u have big enough case to fit all the parts and have quality powersupply unit. 500-600w propably plenty enough for ur setup.

I ended up spending $850 >

That's a good system, it should last you many years! Welcome to the PC gaming master race!

hahaha thats a big jump from 500, hope you enjoy it.

Well if you spent 850 tell me you got a ssd. I spent about 750 or 800 on mine after everything and got a 240gb ssd

no ssd. i have to add another 20 bucks for it.