Around $500 Gaming PC?

not possible, to play bf3 in med and have everything including monitor and OS. (monitor and OS alone will be ~200 to 250 USD) to be able to play bf3 on med, need to get a i5 + hd 6850/550 ti

You don't need an i5 for BF3 from the benchmarks I've seen.

^agreed you can run bf3 on an athlon II x2. It is not very cpu dependent at all, it requires a beefy video card.

^ he also said being able to play everything on the market and future proofing... skyrim is pretty CPU dependent... as other games will be in the future

if you need monitor, OS, and Tower(along with good graphics and future proof)... $500 isn't enough.

"I am also open to a new build" - so what do you have now.....?

Yes, but you can only do so much future proofing on a 500 USD budget  

My $.02

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$20 APEX Vortex 3610 (cheap case)
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$40 Lepa N Series N500-SA 500W
MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$85 ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX (cheapest AM3+ ATX board, X-Fire only)
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$75 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (OEM)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$40 CORSAIR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$100 HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb (free 24x DVD burner)
ODD: see above deal
VID: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$125 ECS NGTX550TI-1GPLI-F1 GeForce GTX 550 Ti
HSF: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$20 COOLER MASTER Hyper TX3

Total no OS: $505 + S&H (not counting MIR, or combo/specials)

For Intel instead:

MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$90 ASRock P67 PRO3 SE LGA 1155 Intel P67
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$180 Intel Core i5-2300

I recommend saving up another $100 if you want to go the Intel route, and grab an i5 2500k and a CM Hyper 212+

Actually, after some poking around, I found this. I know it's integrated graphics, so what's a good budget graphic card? Also, I'll probably need to get a new power supply along with it.

IH8U.... ok budget build... but he said he needs Monitor, OS, keyboard mouse, speakers.... so.... factor that in... and your build ain't "future proof"... but nice info

You also don't have a monitor with that costco thing. So monitor($100) plus GPU(70) plus PSU($40) is gonna make the system pretty expensive.

I think I can try to get you something, but don't expect it to be upgradeable.

A Radeon HD5670/5770 is terrific value for money on a 1600X900 monitor or less.

EDIT: Do you have a microcenter anywhere near where you live?

@calguyhunk No Microcenter anywhere near me. Also, on the monitor problem, I checked the local pawn shop, and he had a $10 crt monitor, I can deal with it until I can get a new one. And I'm alright with waiting a few months before grabbing new GPU and PSU.

CPU: $140 AMD Phenom II X4 970

Mobo: $45 GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2 AM3+

RAM: $40 G.SKILL 8GB DDR3 1333

HDD: $95 Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s

ODD: $20 SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner SATA with LightScribe Support - OEM

GPU: $100 SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5770

Case+PSU: $50 COOLER MASTER Elite 310

Monitor: $93 ASUS 18.5" 1366X768 LCD Monitor

Speakers: $13 Logitech Speaker System

KB+Mouse: $23 Logitech MK200

Total: $619 Including rebates plus shipping. I haven't just picked the cheapest components that I could get my hands on. Instead, I went with industry leading brands and tried to pick out best value, rather than concentrate on just the price itself.

P.S: If you really, really want to penny pinch, get this processor. If you want to go cheaper still change over to this graphics card. Should still be pretty good for your system.

Also, I hadn't realized that I could still make your PC upgradeable. This board is capable of 32 nm 95Watt 8 core processors in the future should you be so inclined.

Total=$559 with the cheaper processor and $534 with the cheaper GPU and CPU.

EDIT: You don't really have to deal with anything. This rig is gonna be pretty kicka$$ if I can say so myself  

I'm guessing that that build doesn't include an OS  

EDIT: Also, thanks for the Micro Center recommendation. Great deals   Anyways, I think I've found 3 desktops that will suit my needs.

The PowerSpec B632 A good $500 price tag, fitting into my budget. An i5 processor (I'm surprised I found one at this cheap), decent, good hard drive, and more advanced version of Windows 7. I think it's all there. The only thing I can see wrong is the slower clock speed of the processor and crap power supply.

The Gateway SX2855-UR30P Desktop Computer Good $400 price tag, fitting under my $500 range. I've heard good things about the i3-2120. Also, good hard drive, decent Ram, but once again, crap power supply.

The Dell Inspiron 620 Once again, another i3-2120. Better power supply than the other two, more RAM, and good hard drive again. My only problem with it is that I can get something similar for $100 less with only a few changes.

The only problem with those builds is that you'll not really get to game on those things without adding discrete gfx. The power supplies may or may not be "crap" as you put it in terms of reliability, but they'll obviously be the bare minimum required to run the system and you'll have to change that to be able to run a discrete GPU in any case. But they do look good for the price.

Yeah, was planning on having it do for the time being, and upgrade some stuff asap. I'm fairly certain I'll be grabbing the Gateway.

After some more searching, I found this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Watched some gameplay of the specs, and it looks pretty impressive. Any comments?

1. Did you check the PM? It should help you a lot, methinks  

2. The iBUYPOWER in your link should be just 'bout alright for now, but if you're happy with a single threaded dual core system, you should really get an Intel Pentium (SB) based system with a GT 440/GTS 450 or something.

My higher clocked (faster) tri-core based recommendation on the other hand will cost you only $559-including the monitor and $466 without the monitor. Only $17 more than the one in your link, but will pretty much pawn that ibuypower PC. So with your $10 monitor, you're gonna get a much sturdier and upgradeable system for ~$476. Everything included.

Well, which scanning the Black Friday flyers, I found something pretty dang good. Dell Inspiron 620:
Core i5-2310 Processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, 6GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 6450 DDR3 Graphics (this surprised me the most), plus, a 20 inch widescreen monitor, all for $600. I'm fairly certain that this is it.

Alright, then. Cheers  

But just felt like letting you know for whatever it's worth, the 6450 is a much weaker GPU than the 5770/6770. In my chart down below (Source:Guru3d.com), you'll see how much stronger even a 5570 is. The 5770 is even a whole lot stronger than that.

---> 5570<5670<5770

I have a nearly new custom built Athlon II X3 3.2GHZ w/HD 5770 520W PSU for sale on ebay if you're interested. With links to my benchmarks.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270859704907?ssPageName=STRK:ME...