Suggestions for possible upgrades/low budget computer.

[tielknight]

So my poor bastard of a Emachines is showing is age more and more lately(especially the HDD). I got it pretty darn cheap(damaged box lead to a 30% discount) 6 years ago at Walmart and it has been chugging along ever since and now, that I am in a more comfortable living situation and can save up some cash, and looking at possible upgrades.

My current computer is a Emachines ET1331G-03w and has >this< in it. I did add a PNY Geforce 9500GT 1GB in it about 5 years ago and it has served me well. Also, the PSU (not listed) is a 80+ Bronze 300W made by FSP Group.


Budget
$~300 if upgrading, $400-500 if buying a new desktop(I will likely be able to sell my old one for around $150 in my area).
Resolution
I am currently using a 23" 16:9 monitor that I would like to be able to run games at 1600:900
Games / Settings Desire
I'm perfectly fine with running games at lower settings, I live at it now after all. I currently play World of Tanks and PS2 games mostly, occasionally games like Skyrim, Dark Souls and Metro.
Any other intensive software or special things you do
None
Country
US
Parts that can be reused
The GFX card I would guess, though using the original system and (possibly) upgrading bits and pieces would be nice.
Do you need an OS?
No
Do you need peripherals
No

Thanks for any help/advice given.

PS: Are there any good places that allow you to make payments that don't jack-up the price 200-300% like Rent-a-Center does?

[chazus]

That's still a relatively tight budget, either way. I imagine you'd need to do CPU/Motherboard (maybe ram too), and video card. And afterwards, possibly a new HDD as well.

Something like this would be a decent step in the right direction though.

PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card ($143.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $303.96

Note that the B75 prevents you from upgrading to a 3570K later down the road, but you may not have the intent to do so. I can't tell if you need to get new ram or not, from the description on the manufacturer website.

[tielknight]

That's still a relatively tight budget, either way. I imagine you'd need to do CPU/Motherboard (maybe ram too), and video card. And afterwards, possibly a new HDD as well.

Something like this would be a decent step in the right direction though.

PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card ($143.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $303.96

Note that the B75 prevents you from upgrading to a 3570K later down the road, but you may not have the intent to do so. I can't tell if you need to get new ram or not, from the description on the manufacturer website.

The ram is 362mhz DDR2 according to Speccy. I was guessing I would have to upgrade the CPU if I was going to upgrade the GPU so it doesn't bottleneck or whatnot. I could probably sell the 9500GT for around $30-50 so that could be used to get new RAM.
As long as it could last for another year or two I would be happy as that would give me time to save up for a proper build.

Thanks for the suggestion and i'll keep a eye out for when those suckers go on sale.

PS : I am a cheapskate. I hate buying anything that isn't cheaper/on sale and scrounge for discounts/coupons all the time and if something's price drops after I buy it I usually kick myself for the next week over it :P

edit : I managed to find a Radeon HD 7770 for $84, it's not too far behind the 650ti boost in benchmarks from what I found(a 6.8/10 for the 7770 vs 7/10 for the 650ti). That would free up $60 to use elsewhere.

edit2 : I went and threw together a relatively cheap build using some part that i found to be a good performance/dollar and good reviews as well. I went and added some RAM and a 500GB hdd (i have a 700gb and have barely half that used up and i clean out my old games/backup installs regularly) and it came out to about $310 including the card.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G2120 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $227.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-28 22:39 EDT-0400)

Plus this card.

Thoughts?