Budget gaming pc-give me your thoughts

^ That is a good build you have come up with...
But here are few suggestions...
If you have not planned for a high overclock, you can check out this mobo too... - UD2...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.287671

And as for the graphics card, what resolution do you play at and what kind of games? It would decide whether there would be a significant difference between the GTX 260 and 9800GTX...
Did you check out the cards from ATI ?

And dont get that 500GB HDD, instead get the Samsung F3 500/ Seagate 7200.12 500GB...they are better...

If I'm not mistaken, the Caviar Black 640 performs a little better than the 500. You may want to look into that.

its not that i want to stick with 500 GB. i would just prefer to cut costs at any place possible and i dont realistically see myself using all of 500 or 640 GBs. thanks for the input about the hdd. anyone else have thoughts/recommendations about the build?

The 4870 is a solid card. I have the 1 Gb version, playing at 1400X900 resolution, and swear by it. It all depends on your resolution. Go to your display properties, or at least give the size of the monitor, so they have an idea what your needs really are. For instance, the 4870 is good for 1400X900-I can play l4d2 with max settings including AA-but I'm sure that at a really high resolution, like those found on 30' LCD's for instance, my performance would suffer a lot. Unless we know your specific needs, it's tough to judge what card you should get.

I would get the Radeon 5770 over the 4870, it's slightly better, nearly the same price, and has Radeon's new eyefinity tech and DX11 support.

^ Though the HD 4870 would be a very good choice...but I would suggest you check out the HD 5770...Though the performance lacks a bit compared to the HD 4870, but for your resolution, it wouldn't matter much...and the main reason for suggesting the 5770 is that its a next gen DirectX 11 card and you wouldn't have to upgrade to a DirectX 11 card, when it becomes mainstream...Or else you would feel the need to upgrade later on...
But if you dont care about DirectX 11, then go ahead and get the HD 4870...its a solid card and comes attractively priced...

Or get this card - Just unbeatable for this price after rebates...It would outperform GTX 260, and has comparable performance of GTX 275...
HIS H489FN1GH Radeon HD 4890 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161299

And as for the HDD, get the Samsung F3 500GB as they would offer very good performance and come at a good price...