Since you guys are often the best at this kind of stuff, and I no longer keep up with it as well as some of you, I come here asking for assistance with upgrading my cpu/motherboard.

I have 4GB of RAM and a Radeon HD4870 currently which can handle a lot of gaming, but the 1.86Ghz Core 2 Duo is probably what is currently being a bottleneck in most of the recent games. Since I have disposable income now, I'm looking to upgrade that CPU, which also probably means upgrading my motherboard as well (since it can only handle Core 2).

Any recommendations in the 175-225 range that are a pretty good deal that you've seen. This also probably means upgrading the RAM, so maybe something all in all that ends up around ~300 dollars? I'm looking to slim my case profile as well, so if you have recommendations for a case for that, it would be much appreciated.

If you need more information, just ask and I shall provide.

Might as well upgrade the video card too, it's almost 3 years out of date

I know I sound like a broken record, but is overclocking (CPU) not an option? If your planning to replace it all anyway, it cant really hurt to try

I don't suppose you have a microcenter near you. I ask because they currently have 2 killer bundles:

http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

If you buy one of the selected AMD processors, you can choose 1 of 4 selected motherboards for free. Some of the motherboards are even AM3/AM2+/AM2 which still use DDR2, so if your 4gb was 2x2gb DDR2 then you could reuse your existing ram.

Or until Sunday-
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/email/CPlanding0325.html

An i3-2100 (Dual core 3.1ghz Sandy Bridge) + MSI H61M-E33 LGA 1155 motherboard for $99. The only downside is I think alot of Microcenter's have already soldout on this combo, and you would have to buy DDR3.

Hey Massassi, get geared up for my I'M GETTIN' A NEW COMP thread in a few months time, this 5-year-old XPS laptop gonna bite the dust 'round then~!

Thanks for the update.

hey yw brian, np

Wow, a second gen i3+mobo for 100 bucks? Why does AMD even exist at this point.

Because their GPU's are pretty awesome.

FTFY