Upgrading Gaming PC, 1 part at a time

Wfs0801

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Apr 6, 2014
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So I recently built this PC:

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cHpwkL) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cHpwkL/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd6300wmhkbox) | $112.98 @ OutletPC
**Motherboard** | [Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-m5a97ler20) | $74.98 @ SuperBiiz
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbrl) | $83.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Sandisk Ultra Plus 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sandisk-internal-hard-drive-sdssdhp064gg25) | $66.99 @ Dell
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003) | $49.99 @ Amazon
**Video Card** | [Asus Radeon R9 270 2GB DirectCU II Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9270dc2oc2gd5) | $179.99 @ Newegg
**Case** | [Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc912kkn1) | $53.99 @ Mwave
**Power Supply** | [Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx430) | $42.30 @ Amazon
**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-gfc02050) | $84.98 @ OutletPC
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $738.19

It was on a budget and it does great. Now, I'm going to start putting small amounts of money aside each week and I want to upgrade it part by part to make it the best machine I can. I'm just not sure what to upgrade first: GPU, CPU, PSU, RAM? First thing I am going to do is add 2-3 small Cooling Fans to the system, just to keep it safely cooled while upgrading. At the moment, the case fans are doing just fine.

A little about my uses: I game on it, so eventually I'd like to be able to hit those Ultra levels with smooth FPS. I also record YouTube gameplay videos, so I do a lot of editing, rendering, processing, etc. Recording simply games (Minecraft, for instance) even takes up a bit of PC power and drops my FPS a small amount, but my FPS for MC is still pretty much overkill. I'm no PC expert, but I think I'd need a bit more processing power to record while playing on the higher end graphic levels.

So what should I look into upgrading first to be able to hit better graphics levels with smooth FPS while recording and be able to make my videos that much more aesthetically pleasing?
 
i dont see any viable upgrade that is worthy
mobo is not for OC, but buying 212 EVO might help to cool the FX cpu while gaming
since it is amd build, you can use some video editing program that utilize opencl e.g sony vegas

and maybe larger ssd 240GB http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct240m500ssd1
so that you can store any games inside OS partition, and use it as scratch disk for video editing rendering
 

Wfs0801

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Apr 6, 2014
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It was only about a $600 budget PC, so there's plenty of room for improvement. I just don't know what would be best to start with.

If I remember correctly, does Windows 7 key itself to the specific motherboard you use when installing? Wouldn't that mean I couldn't upgrade mobo's unless I also purchase a new Windows 7 key? If so, that'd probably be one of the later things I upgrade.