I currently have the 8350, upgraded from an 8120, which I still have (might make a HTPC out of it). My system isn't the best by any means, but I do know that it performs well, and over clocks easily. I've also thought about switching over the blue side, but it is near impossible to find a board that allows two PCIe x16 lanes to be populated and run at full speed. Most "budget" boards for Intel only offer 1 @ x16 or 2 @ x8/x8, meaning that if you XFire later on, you won't get to use the full x16 speed of both lanes. While AMD doesn't offer Gen 3 for PCIe, from what I have read, there is no real performance increase between Gen 2 and Gen 3.
Basically, it comes down to what you really want to do. I do fine with gaming, I don't run into any bottle necking or hesitation with my chip, but I have an SSD, so that might help a little. I do use Adobe CS6, and it runs very smoothly on my system.
Shipping and tax brings the AMD system to ~$450 (8350 + Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z). Just under your $500 budget. The I5 could go just above it, depending on the board you get. The FX line isn't dead yet, and with DDR4 just around the corner, a new set of boards, and possible new set of chips, could be on the way as well...