$200 Gaming Rig Upgrades?

[RubyRoks]

My gaming rig is old as dirt and i'd like to upgrade, but i don't really have much in the way of income, so i'm waiting for christmas gifts for parts. My parents are likely only going to have a budget of $200 USD. I'm not doing this for a performance gain, but more for a better upgrade capacity in the future. That being said, performance increases will be perfectly acceptable

My PC's specs are in my sig as well as on my profile page. I won't be needing any new monitors or peripherals(despite what many say), so don't worry about that. The main things you should be looking at (in my opinion) are CPU, RAM, and GPU. The games i play are as follows: CS:GO, Minecraft, Skyrim w/Mods, CoD, Battlefield, I'd like to get Dark Souls, Dolphin Emu, MAME, and probably more to come.

Note: These games are likely to be run with fraps recording, teamspeak, a mix of the two, or netflix(windows 8 app).

[givingtnt]

a gtx 760 could help
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42765kr

 

although if you want  you can get a new cpu. but hardly both

 

the pentium g3258 is a great choice for small budget : https://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646g3258

 

motherboard : https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-z97kcsm

[RubyRoks]

a gtx 760 could help

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42765kr

you sure it wouldn't bottleneck with the C2Q?

[givingtnt]

 

[givingtnt]

you sure it wouldn't bottleneck with the C2Q?

I updated my post

[Silver Knight]

You CPU is still respectable for gaming... I'd personally upgrade to 280/x, it's more powerful than 760, and it's around that price

[RubyRoks]

You CPU is still respectable for gaming... I'd personally upgrade to 280/x, it's more powerful than 760, and it's around that price

i've had bad experiences with the R series drivers in the past. unless i have a money back guarantee, there's no way i'm buying AMD for GPU's

[Silver Knight]

i've had bad experiences with the R series drivers in the past. unless i have a money back guarantee, there's no way i'm buying AMD for GPU's

So you had bad experiences

 

Oh well, if you can't get that "money back" guarantee, then go with 760, it's a very good card, just go with something with a decent cooler

 

I recommend either MSI TwinFrozr GTX 760 or EVGA Superclocked ACX (personally, i especially like aesthetics of ACX... It's so beautiful... Too bad EVGA is unavailable here...)