[citation][nom]pauldh[/nom]Agreed. Just popping in an i5 would be very nice. However, we'd have to weigh that against other (component) funding options. *see below* Oh, I like that, but it’s not going to happen. We do occasionally get one shot at a single or new budget (a 4th bonus-build). Personally, I can tell you I’d be torn. For starters, I’d like: another $10-15 for a 1TB HDD, another $15-20 for an HD 7850 2GB, and then a SSD, even if limited to just a small boot or Smart Response drive. However these improvements ignore half of our test suite and value rating, and would not please everyone. A Core-i5 alone, even locked, would do wonders for us in productivity and content creation. And then, that extra $100 opens up a whole slew of $100-130 CPU options to explore in between, from both AMD and Intel. Are you happy just playing on your PC (locked Intel), or do you also enjoy playing with it (tweaking/OC - unlocked/AMD)?Tell me about it! Every single time I'm reminded what just a bit more funding could do. I’d say it would be a great addition to occasionally add a $600-800 bonus build to the mix.[/citation]
I think that being limited to Newegg is a bigger issue than the budget. For example, an i3 or A10-5800K or FX-430 would all have no problem in the $500 budget with an 8GB memory it and otherwise decent hardware(including a Radeon 7850) if you could use other venders since Newegg simply doesn't always have the best pricing. Of course, unlike increasing the budget, SBMs can't use sites other than Newegg, but that doesn't stop it from being an issue :/