Needing Upgrade Advice - $350 Budget for MB, CPU, RAM and GPU - Gaming

[NaCl-T]

Hello everyone,

Been out of the tech loop for awhile and needing to help a friend with an immediate upgrade. He has old components now but we can use the case, OS, hard drives and a 550W Antech PSU. We need to find the best bang for the buck for a budget gaming rig. Would like to stay at $300 but $350 is absolute max.

Looking for great deals on the following, please list any suggestions.

CPU
Mohterboard
RAM
Graphics Card

Thanks a ton!!!

 

[a3venom]

PCPartPicker part list: Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core - System Build - PCPartPicker
Price breakdown by merchant: Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core - System Build - Price Breakdown By Merchant - PCPartPicker

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($46.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($35.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $193.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-26 10:26 EDT-0400

This is the best you can grab for near 200, and get a used GPU. There is no point get a new one as you will miss out 1/2 with a $120 GPU here whereas you could get a r9 290 or gtx 970 for 150-ish and it will be able to max most games at 1080p

 

[silent-circuit]

I would not recommend a dual core CPU for anything but office work in this day and age. Save up a bit more or buy a used quad.

 

[a3venom]

I would not recommend a dual core CPU for anything but office work in this day and age. Save up a bit more or buy a used quad.

I3 6100 is pretty much on par with a 2500k clock for clock in fps numbers. No idea how people are still living in mid 2000s where cores really meant everything

 

[silent-circuit]

I3 6100 is pretty much on par with a 2500k clock for clock in fps numbers. No idea how people are still living in mid 2000s where cores really meant everything

They don't mean everything, but a dual core is going to be a serious bottleneck in some titles, and they tend to be the more intensive AAA sort. That's just going to get more common over time. Building something that'll perform poorly in games a year or two from now (given the longevity of any even borderline modern CPU these past many years) just doesn't make sense. Not when for another $50-100 upfront (especially if buying used) you can get better performance and longer life out of a system.

 

[a3venom]

They don't mean everything, but a dual core is going to be a serious bottleneck in some titles, and they tend to be the more intensive AAA sort. That's just going to get more common over time. Building something that'll perform poorly in games a year or two from now (given the longevity of any even borderline modern CPU these past many years) just doesn't make sense. Not when for another $50-100 upfront (especially if buying used) you can get better performance and longer life out of a system.

OP seems to be on extreme budget and there is no video card in his budget that will be limited by an i3 6100. Neither are there games that will struggle to maintain 60fps on an i3.
Whereas there are numerous games that will struggle on first gen i5s (quad cores) / AMD 4 core budget X4 / 6 core FX