Upgrade on a budget

[Oki Doki]

Hello guys/girls,

I'm currently running really old setup:
Phenom II 550BE
Gigabyte AM2+ MB
4GB RAM DDR2
HD5870 1GB
500W PSU

I need an upgrade but I'm on short budget. I was thinking the GPU (for the time being), PSU and Case can be still used but all the other components need to be changed.

I couldn't get the last Dragon Age, Watch_Dogs to run. Which I suspect CPU is the main problem as it has no power whatsoever nowadays.
I don't need to run the games in 4k HD on 2 monitors or anything (I used to play first Crysis on 256MB GPU and 1,8GHz single core - 12FPS at times 😀). Just to be able to run the newer games on low/medium.

I was considering G3258 or FX-6300. Now the i3-6100 seems decent but has rather pricey 1151 MBs. Any tips would be nice!

 

[RaptorZ]

Whats your budget?

 

[jhall18]

the i3 6100 will consistently beat the fx 6300 and g3258 in single core performance

 

[Oki Doki]

Whats your budget?

$300 tops.

 

[BadActor]

You'll need a new copy of Windows unless you already have a retail version, too.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.85 @ OutletPC)
Total: $239.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-26 06:41 EDT-0400

 

[RaptorZ]

What about this fast i5 build?
(you will need to use your HD 5870)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KPG8WZ

 

[Oki Doki]

You'll need a new copy of Windows unless you already have a retail version, too.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.85 @ OutletPC)
Total: $239.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-26 06:41 EDT-0400

That's basically what I imagined. The pricing seems reasonable - but I heard faster memories like 2666MHz actually make sense with the i3-6100?

 

[BadActor]

Faster memory can make a difference in some games and applications, but with the H110 chipset, running anything faster than 2133 isn't guaranteed, even if the motherboard says that it is XMP enabled.