i would like to wait, but i've been waiting and saving for a long time now, and i'd like to just start :)
yeah i've been trying to go on the cheap. my brother just told me to look at the package thing at neweegg too :)
stupid bill gates!

That is correct, I remember buying a Pentium 3 800Mhz PC but pay extra for motherboard and stuff because I plan to upgrade it to better stuff. Then Pentium 4 comes and my motherboard should not be able to support it.

With more and more core for CPU and GPU, motherboard can obsolete fast.

If you want to do minimal work, start with refurbished machines.

http://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Computers/RefurbishedStore/ID-66?name=Refurbished-Desktop-PCs

The DIY combos are better bang for your buck, but if you don't know what you're doing having someone who can build your PC in 60 minutes can make a huge difference.

http://www.newegg.com/DIY-PC-SuperCombos/PromotionStore/ID-33?name=DIY-Super-Combos

Finally, the video card. If the power supply has less than 550Watts, go with probably a low power video card, otherwise you might consider higher end video cards which want 200watts by themselves.

I've listed the Open box. It's a little of a gamble, they will probably not include drivers, cables or extra accessories, however the prices on video cards can be considerably discounted.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007709%204809

yeah that's very true. on the other hand though things do change this year. we are on the cusp of big gpu change.

pcpartpicker.com

my advice is to ask on pc enthusiast communities. you'll get the best advice.

don't buy into am3 unless you know what you're doing.

you may find you want to add something at the end you didn't think of. try not to get something without researching or getting advice first. just leave it off and then order separate, unless it's a really good price.

when it comes to gaming PCs, GPU is what matters most. far more than everything else.

don't buy into a platform (motherboard and cpu generation) that can't support ddr4 unless you're certain that you're not looking to upgrade later and you're fine with that in exchange for cost savings on the build.

no, i want to build this pc.
lol omg that DIY link was great though, I found one very very close to what i was gonna build!

The combos should be selected to work together, so you don't have to do a lot of outside checking; To be honest what cards/hardware is compatible with what machines, which CPU type it is, etc etc, i haven't kept up in years.

If you find a DIY package that suits you then i'd say go for it. Again make sure the power supply is strong enough for an upcoming video card. Double check it has everything you need. If you need an extra hard drive, video card, more ram, etc.

As a reminder, if you're not going to be gaming, one of the cheaper refurbished ones would probably suit you. However for gaming, well i've once gone with a bare-bones system of $125, and added a video card and hard drive and ram and it was good to go (back in 2005, i could play Oblivion afterall :P).

edit: Oh yes just remembered.. In all likelihood a DIY system will most likely ***NOT*** include an OS. So you'll probably end up installing one you already own, or a Free OS... As i don't recommend Windows 8 or 10, your choices are probably having an old copy (XP 64bit or Win7), acquiring a copy (probably pirated), or using a variant of Linux. Linux GPU support has never been that high with NVidia so keep that in mind as well.

Geforce 750 Ti was my choice for budget graphics. I don't think it can be beaten in terms of price for performance.

I'd listen to rtcvb32's advice, even if its just to see what is out there. Sometimes you can chance upon a deal that is too good to be true. And even DIY, you can look at a combo package and if you have money left, upgrade the weaker parts.

I did this with my current computer. It was a $2000 computer on sale 40% off because many of the components were a single iteration out of date. It was prebuilt and had an i7 4770k as the 4790k's were coming out R9 290 as the R9 290X's were coming out, etc. And it had a water cooling system. The money I saved I threw into overclocked RAM which I also found on sale.

So, while I definitely suggest you put together a DIY list of components (I did), just also keep your eye out for package deals on sale which might actually have many components you didn't think were in your budget.

I am highly upset my practical hamster suggestion has been ignored and will follow with a ten page long post about the benefits, and keep mentioning my shares in hamsters, and their wheels that power only the good mikwosopht compootahs around the globe. You bad, bad people!

o____O

because we all know how powerful hamster powered energy is..

Although if it were Chocobo powered...
Probably anything made in the last 10 years will still be very useful; Although maybe not as large as more current iterations (ram, hard drive space, thumb drive space, etc)

Well, you have a good point :P Don't cheap out on the power supply. Get it from a reputable brand. Someone who knows more about this than me can provide the list of good brands. Also, if you buy Corsair, don't buy one of their CX-branded PSUs!

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

You have 600$ and already talking about upgrade.

Maybe it's worth it to get a credit in bank and buy i7 you already need? This way you will save your time on trying to find an obsolete (by this time; what year it'll be? 2018-2019?) i7-6700k and you won't have trouble searching for buyer for your i3 or i5, which you want to buy now.

Seriously, get a loan and buy what you really need. Don't listen to this marketing bullshit about "upgrade path".

Aside from adding more memory, or PCI slotted based accessories, I've never really upgraded any of my computers. There's almost no point, after 4-5 years when you use the computer and you HAVE to upgrade, nothing's going to be compatible or the limits from the computer are obviously way out of fashion.

Besides, when going on the cheaper end of things, it's doubtful you'll be upgrading much.

* Get something that will suit you for a while
* Leave it be, and use the computer for years. If you've built your rig right based on today's hardware, you shouldn't need to do anything special for a few or even several years. True the newest and worst optimized games won't run well *cough* Farcry Primal *cough* AC Unity *cough*. But otherwise it should do for you for 95% of your needs.

Depending on price difference of DDR3 vs DDR4, I'd ignore it and stick with DDR3. Most of the speed improvements are done via cache anyways and those are expensive and/or built into the CPU (Most of the transistors in modern cpu's is mostly caching memory anymore).