First PC Build

[Xach]

Hello everyone.

I've got a Cooler Master Centurion 5 II case (red interior) and 650W PSU, so can't make changes there. I need to get my new PC up and running. My original budget was going to be £350 (excluding case and PSU) but this is looking very unlikely so may have to push this up to £500.

I'd like to be able to play Battlefield 3 etc, but mainly I've been stuck on WOW for a few years so may go back for a brief spell to see how it should look with a decent system. My current planned components are listed below:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (can get that for below £80 from Pixmania - but only today)
ASUS M597 PRO
Corsair Memory Vengeance Blue 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB - Solid State Drive (SATA III)
Samsung WriteMaster SH-S222AB/BEBE
Windows 7 HP

The SSD Drive is in there as 1Tb HD prices have gone crazy and I was going to use my existing 1Tb external and then wait for the prices to go down. I'd plan to add a 1Tb internal drive later. This little lot gets me to around the £360 mark and as you'll notice no Graphics so not much use and already over my original budget.

There's no way I'll ever go for 2 cards so we can ignore Crossfire / SLI as a future option (I'm a tight Yorkshireman at heart).

Over-clocking is a future possibility but this is my FIRST build and that will only happen once I'm more confident about this.

At the minute I could get the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition for about £85, but is that going to make much difference to the 955. The £10 may be better used on the GPU.

All help / comments greatly appreciated. Especially on the best GPU.

[Xach]

Hello again, went ahead and bought all this gear so PC is now:

Cooler Master GX 650W
Cooler Master Centurion 5 II
Asus M5A97 Pro
Corsair M4 64Gb SSD
Phenom X4 965
Samsung DVD Drive
Power Color Radeon 6860 1Gb
8Gb (2 x 4Gb) Corsair Vengeance 1600 9-9-9-24 1.5v

Now my new question: PC will only boot maybe 1 in 10+ tries as it's reporting a problem with the memory. Red DRAM Led comes on an stays on most of the time. Anyone any ideas at all that I can try before going out and buying more DDR3 to see if this is a RAM or Motherboard problem.

I've tried using the MemOK button on the Asus board but so far no luck.

Thanks.

[0iD]

Have you tried using one ram module at a time & seeing if one is iffy?

[Firdelore]

If you want a relatively good mid-range GPU, go for somewhere around the 6950-6970 series. They won't get outdated too quick, I believe, so it might be a good investment - it's about £180-210 depending on what model you decide on. If you're someone that likes silence, go for a dual fan GPU for lower temps and less noise.

[Xach]

Thanks for the responses. Took the whole thing apart again put it all back together and now running like a charm. Really impressed by the SSD.

One issue remains however. If I shut down (or restart) the PC hangs on the VGA post check. If I shut down the PC and leave it off for say 1 minute and then turn back on everything is fine. But if I shut down and turn back straight away (within about 1 minute) the PC always hangs on the VGA check.

Any ideas? PSU issue maybe?