So I did an RMA on the first motherboard. Get an email from them late last week stating that the board was damaged and that they would no repair it. No idea how I could have damaged the board. I was very careful and if you have been following you know that I even put the components on the board and did test fits on everything before installing it so there would be no problems. Even took the time to take pictures of all the steps for this blog. I've been working on/building/repairing computers for 38 years and have never damaged a board. I have a feeling I was sold a returned board that was damaged but as I had the flu and didn't get a chance to inspect the parts and build it sooner the return window past at the end of last month. So I had to shell out for another motherboard. Of course just like everything else with this system it was delayed. It was supposed to show up on Friday but the USPS screwed up somehow and it didn't arrive until today.
First thing I did (well after taking the pic of the box) was to open it and inspect it this time. Seeing no damage I went about installing the components minus the SSD drives and mounted the motherboard in the case. One thing I did note was that the motherboard has no seals. Only thing there is is a piece of scotch tape holding the anti-static bag closed. I hooked up the cables necessary for a test and installed a GPU (not the good one) just to be safe. It booted right up.
I didn't bother even stuffing anything int he case. After I knew it got to the BIOS screen went back and put the drives on the board and hooked up all the cables for the other drives/fans/etc and installed the good GPU.
So with everything hooked up I booted it back up and no video. That sudden feeling of panic. Then I realized my monitor has a "feature" that turns itself off when no signal is detected for a few minutes. Turned the monitor back on and there it was the insert system disk message. A quick reboot and into the BIOS to change some settings like boot order and power features. Then another reboot. Finally the Windows disk inserted and ready for install.
Got Windows installed and called it a night. Hating Windows 10 already though. Couldn't even find where to display disk partitions and create/delete them. So next will be installing all the drivers. Then let it run for a few days before doing a little tidying up of the wires and putting the cover on. Then it's time to finally crank those newer video game graphic settings to max and complain about the heat.
Learned one important thing. Don't get the flu after ordering parts. Seriously always inspect your components even if you can't use them yet. Dang back orders on the memory and PSU cost me for not doing it.