Building a new budget PC - please assist!

[Phosey]

Good day, I need some help building a budget PC from the experts. I haven't built a PC in a little over 5 years so I'm a little rusty with what's good tech, up to date models, budget and extreme CPUs/GPUs/SSDs. My current computer is in the fryer, I'm betting motherboard that is FUBAR, it went SNAFU this morning after cleaning. I'm reckoning I nicked a capacitor by accident, and the computer is a custom built 5 year old thing, so I reckon I need a new one to tackle more modern things.

My past specs are: 2.8GHz Intel Smithfield DC.
9800GT (I bought this after my Radeon 1900GT fried)
2GB OCZ DDR PC3200 (Two sticks)
500W powersupply that I bought after my old one fried.
IDE 250GB WDC, IDE 160WDC
DVD-RW Drive

•Budget: 200-350 dollars.
•Resolution: 1280x1024, ideally.
•Games / Settings Desired: World of Warcraft, BF2, BF3 (a will and a prayer), Source (HL2DM, CSS, TF2), settings: Low to Ultra, settings really don't bother me, I play the game to enjoy the essence, if I get some magical shinies with what I have, I'll take it! I'll push the system to the limit regardless.
•Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc): Nothing intensive besides an occasional game, maybe some Photoshop, Blender, video rendering (if I get into that sort of thing), maybe overclocking if possible; but not if it isn't.
•Country: United States
•Parts that can be reused: Power supply, DVD-RW drive, Harddrives. Everything else should probably be trashed (or whatever isn't broken, sold individually) to prevent bottlenecking. I have my monitor, my G15, my G5, my headset, all can and will be reused. I also have my retail Windows 7 so that's not needed either.

I can to +-50 to the budget, preferably the cheaper the better. Since Black Friday is coming up, it's almost the perfect time for my computer to die (there's a light to everything, I suppose). Thanks in advance

[vesseblah]

With that budget I'd recommend getting H67 motherboard, Intel i3-2100 processor and 2x2 DDR3 RAM, total price will be around $250.

Problem upgrading computer that old is your current HDD and DVD uses old PATA cables, and most modern motherboards have only SATA connectors. So either you need to find a motherboard where you can stick the old drives, or update those as well. Newegg has these boards listed with PATA connector, and I'd probably get the AsRock which is second-cheapest because the P67 chipset allows overclocking if you at some point later get overclockable processor instead of locked i3-2100.

[Phosey]

Update! Since it's now the holiday weekend, I've been doing some more hunting and have my eyes glued on some product options:
I can either go for an i3 LGA1155 system or a Phenom X4 AM3 system, and I'm unsure of which to select for light-moderate gaming. I plan on playing WoW, BF3, Skyrim, and anything remotely new on any settings with decent framerate.

Here's what I have so far:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820178332 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811164040 Case

Those items might be staying put unless there's a better deal/better upgrade.

This is the i3 setup:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115078 i3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138332 mobo

This is the Phenom X4 955 setup:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103808 955
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138283 mobo

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts. Both builds run roughly the same 205 dollars. Any ideas at all? Thanks in advance

[glo]

Inte's current Sandy Bride Celeron line can out perform that Phenom in gaming. That said;

EVGA 01G-P3-1351-KR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB $120
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB $25
BIOSTAR H61MGC $50
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz $110
COOLER MASTER Elite 430 $35
Use your existing HDD. $0

You'll probably need an IDE to SATA converter, and you can grab one for 10 bucks off newegg here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812206002

$350 total, and can game somewhat respectively on low resolution monitors. You're not going to be able to shave off any more money. Also, MAKE SURE your PSU is made by a reputable company.

If you need to lower the total cost, swap out the i3 for a g620. You'll save 40 bucks and lose very little in terms of gaming performance.