[citation][nom]amuffin[/nom]Just look at the scores. There are some unrealistic scores, such as an FX-8150 outperforming the i5-3570k, i5-2500k, and 1st gen i7's.[/citation]
Passmark is fully threaded. The FX-8150 can fly past an i5 in some software that uses eight threads and I wouldn't be surprised to see it beating first gen i7s in this either. Even second gen i7s can barely beat it in highly threaded software, although they are far more power efficient.
[citation][nom]RADIO_ACTIVE[/nom]I know its been said before and acknoledged, but there is no such thing as a $500 gaming rig, tack on another 300-400 for monitor, keyboard and mouse, windows license.[/citation]
Windows can be had for free (legally) very easily if you know how. If you know any college students, then you can get Windows for free if they are in a college that Microsoft Dreamspark works with (pretty much all US colleges, I don't know how it goes with foreign colleges) and if not, then you can simply use an eval copy. I have an eval copy of Windows Server 2008r2 x64 that I downloaded strait from Microsoft. You can have a single copy for over a year before it needs a code and at that time, there are several things that you can do to keep it longer without paying for it and all legally. Keyboard and mouse can be had for $5 to $15 and most people who win this already have a keyboard and mouse anyway, so no big deal. If not, then they can most certainly afford to buy a keyboard and mouse. However, considering that most people on this site already have a computer and any gamers looking for a new desktop, even a low-budget one, would already have peripherals.
Now the monitor I can kinda agree with when it comes to the $1K and $2K builds because a lot of people here probably don't have a 2560x1600 monitor or something like that and such a monitor could cost as much as the builds themselves, but with the $500 desktop... Again, chances are that people have a monitor that would be appropriate for its performance. Even up to a 1080p monitor is getting common now and even if you didn't have one, chances are that you at least have a 1600x900 or 1440x900. Sure, they wouldn't be ideal (especially for this computer), but they are something.
However, a monitor would be a good way to spend the $650 budget without people complaining about that being too high for the computer itself, so maybe we can just bump up the budget and include the monitor and if we do that, then peripherals would make sense too, but I still hold to my word about saying that they aren't really necessary as something that should be included in the computer. There could be a $500 budget for the machine itself and a $150 for peripherals. How does that sound, pauldh?