The 3300 is not a "gaming" chipset. While it will play AH reasonably well (I've got a 550 box on same MD and a 720 on a DDR3 790GX-G65) it does not compare to any current mid range GPU. It's an outstanding value for building a general use box (wife and son in my case) with good graphics. Systems run very cool and quiet. The other potential benifit is in allowing a better set of options on a "budget build". My son plays games on a PS3 much more then on the PC. I wanted to build out the best potential "low level" gamer I could on a budget while maintaining the ability to handle an upgrade. With the i5's not out and the new AMD stuff I took a flier on the 720 (nice chip) and paired it with the MSI board above and 4G of PC1600 viper memory.
Normally on a "budget build you have roughly $50 bumps in all aspects. Good case $100....soso $50. Good PS $120, soso $60-70. Good MB $170, "nice" $125ish, last years big thing $85. "Boffo" VC $225, nice $125+....eh it works $60ish, Top midlevel CPU $225+, Good$160+...ok OC special $75-100....
So to me the ability to eliminate the $75 card and upgrade elsewhere and get decent performance is better then having to cut a level elsewhere to make it all fit the target $$$...
