Newly built computer does not output anything onto monitor

Try booting with only 1 stick of ram. If the board has built in video, use that at first, if it works with one stick, add the second stick. If still working try the video card, make sure it's seated. May try to the card in a friend's system to verify your card works.

There is one thing that is quite obvious to a lot of people, but can easily happen to anyone, and so obvious that most people wouldn't think of it.

Did you plug in your HDMI/DVI cable from monitor to your motherboard's output? Or to the GPU's output....

Did you perform all the steps in the checklist on the thread from tomshardware about no posting/no signal?

Op, if you haven't tried this, try a different power supply just in case yours is messed up.

You've already tried a new motherboard. The CPU could be your issue, but very rarely have I ever seen bad CPU's. Maybe like once or twice out of the dozens and dozens of systems I've worked on. You are plugging in the 4 pin/8 ping power for your CPU near the top of the board right? Do you have a system speaker in your computer? If so, if you pull the ram out, does the board beep at you?

Just an observation, this is me personally. But as far as motherboards, I would not think you'd get 2 in a row that are bad, but you never know. I know I go to Microcenter and I've walked in there before to see tons of open box Asus boards. Their display case was once filled with them, and they had a bunch with yellow stickers for sale, which means open box.

As far as ASRock, I looked at the board you've got. Is it this one you have?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157281

Not trying to be a jerk, but I don't even like the look of that board. I mean parts of it look flashy, but the reviews aren't great, and looks like only 4+1 power phasing, no heatsink on the vrms. I don't know for that kind of money that I'd trust my system to that.


I run the older version of this board, but it's similar.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651

That's a Gigabyte 970a-ud3p. Look near the processor on your board, then on that one. See the differences? That Gigabyte has 8+2 power phasing, plus looks like all the VRM's are at least passively cooled. I have an 8 core overclocked on mine from 3.1ghz to 4.2 with a voltage bump and it handles it fine.

If I wanted a 990 series board, then grab this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514

Which is the Gigabyte 990FXA-ud3.

If memory serves right though, unless you are planning on running dual cards the 970 series is really plenty. I mean it's totally up to you but I think I'd consider RMAing the 2 other boards and pick up a gigabyte. That's my opinion. I've built quite a few systems and have used Gigabyte quite a bit, even on their lower end boards, only one I had fail was where a guy decided to do drywall work in the room next to his computer. Leaves the computer on, didnt cover the computer, and when drywall dust gets in it, wonders why the computer was acting up. Why do you think that was lol. But personally I've just had the best luck with Gigabyte. I've used Asus, MSI, etc, but keep coming back to Gigabyte. Can't seem to kill em, easily at least.

That aside. I would start here since you went through the checklist.

1. Try a different power supply since it sounds like you haven't yet. The CX500 is from corsair, but is an entry level unit. You could pick better, but could have done worse also. See if a different unit boots up or not. Maybe yours is a dud from the factory and you will get another that will run for years. If you decide to change to a different power supply, let me make a suggestion that's close in cost to what yours is.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438014

That's an evga 600b, 80+ certified bronze rating like yours. It's 49 amps on a single 12v+ rail. I'm running one of these with my overclocked FX 8120, ssd and hard drive, and a radeon 7950 and it handles it fine, seems very stable. Jonny Guru had an article on the 500b and rated it 8 or so out of 10.

2. If you still can't get it to boot, I would try a different video card. Or see if a friend has one you can test with. Or if you can test your card in their system. If worse came to worse, you can grab a card like this to test and maybe resell it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-CD453-ATI-Radeon-X600-128MB-PCI-E-Video-Graphics-Card-DVI-S-Video-Tested-/380852529523?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item58ac946973

But should not have to do that.

3. Check the ram. You should probably do this first, make sure it's seated, see if it works in another system etc.

4. Look long and hard at the motherboard as suggested in the first part of my post. If you change the motherboard again and still no boot, then I'd have to say CPU. But I think the CPU is unlikely. I've almost never seen bad CPU's, does happen, but very rarely. More often the motherboards go out first.

Hopefully something here helps. Silly question from me, but I'm assuming you put standoffs in your case right? Also when you built, were you grounding yourself by touching the case, handling everything by the edges, not by the pins or the connectors correct?