If forced to choose (which I was with my current rig), spend more money on the SSD and plan on upgrading the RAM when you need it. If you're stuck with a platter hard drive, then definitely go with 16GB of RAM.

Not being a Windows PC person, I'm not sure what SSD options are available but you should try to find the fastest bus connection you can too. I've got the PCIe SSD in my iMac and the SATA SSD for my Mac Pro and for a lot of stuff my iMac seems faster even though it was a fraction of the cost.

Overall, if you want to spend $500-600 on web browsing and games I'd say get a PS4 and a cheap tablet, but that's not as much fun as building a PC.

that is harsh Null. get a ps4 and a tablet? good god man, do you think every chicken noodle soup can is full of fabio?

Meh, what can I say. I like to sit on my couch instead of a keyboard and monitor when I'm chilling out instead of plopping down in front of a computer that looks almost identical to the one I just spent 8-10 hours in front of at work.

/filthy casual 300 light hunter blade-dancer

what can you say? understanding? its all good. can i have your casino cash?

For the price of RAM, just plan on going with 8.

If it was me, there are a couple of nice builds that have been put up, but buy a used GPU. They typically are still under warranty for the second owner (depending on age) and you can get a ton more for your money.

That can literally be done with this budget PC

SSD is a huge performance boost. I'd recommend, especially if you don't plan to store alot of shit (videos, mp3s, images). You can always add an HDD for storage later on. HGST makes a rock solid 2TB drive that's available on Newegg for $56.

Also, AMD based systems really like matched timings for some reason, so when you pick your RAM be mindful of that. There's not a huge performance gain by going with lower CAS latency, but to each their own. I recommended an 11-11-11 timing, but if you want to spend an extra $10-20, you could lower that latency down, probably to 9.

SSD & 8GB RAM is all you'll need no matter what you choose to see really nice performance. You can pair that with whatever you want. The new Skylake Intel processors have the new onboard HD 530 graphics that are actually pretty damn good and you'll pull like 27-30 fps on GTA. Obviously the APUs from AMD are going to be much better in the graphics realm though and is a big reason I'd go with them on a budget build.

If you get an extra $300 and want to go crazy, pair an Intel Core i5 with a Radeon R7 370 4GB or nVidia GeForce GTX 960 4GB and you can pretty well play any game on the planet right now on max settings.

Thanks for all the help guys..I am doing some more research and may bump up the budget some just to get a little extra performance

Really do appreciate the help and advice