With the holidays rapidly approaching and my folks questioning me for gift ideas, ( Won't buy me games, apparently they think college is important) I have decided upon upgrading my computer.

My current build is-------

- Antec 900 Gaming Computer Case
- AMD Phenom II X2 555 Processor ( 3.2 GHz)
- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260
- Windows 7 x64 bit OS

Sorry not sure what other specs are required......

Currently I can run Skyrim on Ultra settings with only minor lag occurring during dragon fights and with an annoying flickering when my view distance is cranked up. Some recommendations I've received include getting a new processor to getting another video card. I just want to know what is in most need of an upgrade both for the current status in gaming and for the near future. Mostly I just want to know what will fit in with my current system so again if you need more information I'll be glad to track my hardware down on Newegg.

You could go up to say a quad core phenom and a better videocard. Possibly some better RAM, considering what you've got in there.

When upgrading a processor what other components do I have to make sure it plays nice with?

You need to make sure that the processor is supported by your motherboard.

If you have an AM3 motherboard that isn't intel you can now get the AMD FX-8120. It has eight, thats right eight cores.

That's about all it has going for it...

And really, you more than likely don't need eight cores. Very, very few people do (and just as many applications take advantage of it). You'd be better off getting a higher quality quad-core proc than going with an octo-core processor.