Give me a good pc build for around $500

$800?

Better. At $500, you could do a respectable GPU or a respectable CPU, but not both, and the games you mentioned favor both -- particularly at 1080P at medium to high settings, an i3 or FX-6300 (CPUs that fit the $500 budget) will likely bottleneck a mid-grade GPU in those games.


So, what would be something like an i3/R9-380/no SSD on a $500 budget, turns into this for $800:

PCPartPicker part list: LINK
Price breakdown by merchant: LINK /

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380X 4GB Video Card ($233.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $800.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-05 22:25 EST-0500


Note: I selected the CPU/motherboard with the idea of doing a quick and easy free overclock on the CPU to get the highest single-core performance possible. From what I've seen, that will be of benefit for Arma III. Alternatively, you could go with a locked i5, like a 4460, H97/H87 motherboard, and upgrade the GPU to a GTX 970 or R9-390.

I usually include a placeholder case for price guidance.

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The easy overclocking part yes, not the Arma part.

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Oh, I thought you were an Arma III player. Hmm, I'm second guessing myself now. I need to look further into Arma's performance. Could be $50+ better spent on upgraded graphics.

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I already have a copy of windows 8

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Torrent a copy of 10

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Pretty sure Arma is CPU-intensive.

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It is, and so is fallout, but the question is whether the potential 30+% CPU speed difference will affect framerate more than a 30+% GPU speed difference at 1080p/high-ish settings -- specifically concerning these upper-mid-range GPUs (380x and 390).

I just came across one set of results that tested it at 1080p using a GTX 770 and various CPUs. They set it to standard quality (to un-bottleneck GPU), and the fps difference between a stock 4670K and one with a 1GHz overclock was less than 5% (162 and 170fps respectively). But the biggest drop in framerate seems to occur when testing the 8350. The i3's they tested outperformed the AMDs, meaning it's using 2 cores heavily and benefits from 4 threads a little more.

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no way is the performance diff between the 380x worth almost 50% more

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Maybe not, but I'm now thinking a 390 might be worth the $110 or so increase, even if the added performance doesn't quite scale accordingly (that's just a fact of life when it comes to the difference between mid- and high-range GPUs, always has been).

I wouldn't recommend an i3 here unless the budget has to be $500 again (which I'm assuming is what you were suggesting for that budget as well). From what I'm seeing, Fallout 4 solidly uses 4 cores, and benefits slightly from more.

EDIT: Here's my revised part list. I think this will yield the best performance in those games.

PCPartPicker part list: LINK
Price breakdown by merchant: LINK /

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY CS1111 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ Video Card ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $761.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-06 00:14 EST-0500

I used UltimateHog's SSD suggestion because it's totally worth getting the extra space for $20 more. You can go with a 16GB mem kit if you want, but only if you think you'll need it for tasks outside of gaming. You can add a hyper 212 evo for quieter cooling. Feel free to pick a different case (In fact, I encourage you to, because I picked it as a functional price placeholder only).