First gaming computer. $500 budget

[schulmanworks]

I'm building my first gaming computer. I'm hoping to keep the cost under $500 for the parts. Here's what I've come up with. Also I have an old dvd drive, 80 gb hard drive, old cooling fan (I don't know what size, but I do know it's not one of the unusually large or small ones), old 2x512 mb RAM cards. My monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 2253LW with a resolution of 1680 x 1050. Also I live in the U.S.

Here's what I've found on my own:

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116775

GPU:HIS IceQ Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB $124.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161414

Motherboard:ASRock B75M-DGS LGA 1155 Intel B75 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157335

RAM:Team 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313266

PSU:COOLMAX ZX Series ZX-600 600W $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159125

Case: HEC Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - OEM $34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121120

Hard drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152244

I also need a cheap mouse.

Games I plan on playing:
Assassin's Creed 3, Borderlands 2, Metro 2033, Battlefield sequels, Civilization series, Mass Effect series, Elder Scrolls series, etc.
Cost: $489.93

plus Windows 8 = $529.93

How can I best improve and stay within my price ranger?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Pareema 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($130.49 @ Amazon)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($35.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $522.42
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-21 07:32 EST-0500)

 

[butremor]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Pareema 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Gigabyte GZ-F5HEB ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.89 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $541.81
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-21 07:36 EST-0500)

 

[LagerLV]

Question why do you need so huge PSU get one of 400W will do fine but so it will be 80+

And for gaming you absolutly not need i3 dual core pentium do will just fine

There are no many games who use more than 2 cores if so then you gona see only very tiny difference here are my system pickup

+windows 8 is not that cheap atleast windows 8 OEM 84.99 so here are system with windows 8 included if you dont want you can remove and torrent it!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tuFI

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I would not get a dual core. I know so many guys say oh a pentium will do. Minimum I would go is an i3 or amd fx4100. Op have you considered the amd build above but take out the fx 6300 put an fx4100 in its place and use the money saved to upgrade to a radeon 7850. A lot of guys will say intel is better, but if you get a quad and 7850, that should get you started especially since your graphics card is going to matter more than CPU for games, and you can always overclock the fx4100 or swap it later.