Asking for complete upgrade advice - what in this build is salvageable?

[Ma-dazz]

I've got a PC of which the PSU, case, fans, GPU and HDD are over 6 years old (at least). Motherboard, CPU and RAM are fairly new (2 years old), since the old ones (also over 6 years old) were replaced after the motherboard they were on stopped working due to an electric spike (got a motherboard with a new socket).

I want to upgrade this PC and would like to do it with the lowest possible amount, preferably over a prolonged time. What would be a decent small budget? Is any of the components here worth keeping on the PC after all upgrades and additions have been made?

My focuses are: gaming (almost always NOT cutting-edge 2018 titles), internet browsing (10-35 tabs open) and storage (I frequently search and browse through thousands of unsorted text, image, PDF and video files in a single folder, which is a big nuisance for my dual-boot system, both in W7 and Ubuntu 14.04).

Specs are in the attached pic.

 

[johnb35]

Most likely what is hurting is the fact that you only have a dual core processor and only 4gb of ram. Should have a quad core with at least 8 gb of ram. Without having to change out motherboard for a newer socket, pretty limited to what you can do. Look for either an I5-4670 or an I5-4690 cpu on ebay or similar. You would also need to buy an 8gb(2x4) kit of memory so you have matching sticks. And then of course get a new video card.

 

[Cisco001]

Second hand 4th gen i5 or i7, 8gb RAM
gtx 1050, cheap 240gb ssd, decent 400w psu

 

[beers]

It's hard since you would have to buy most of the components to bring that up. 8G also might be a little tight with 35 tabs.

Cheapest play would be a i5-4xxx series CPU, another 4g stick of ram to match and a better video card. My roommate rolled a 9600GT in 2007..

I personally would start doing a data backup/redundancy scheme if you haven't already as that drive is also pretty old.