I got all of my parts together and my friend said he'd help me with the build. We spent all day putting it together, but we keep hitting this weird issue. Whenever we try to boot it up, it goes for about half a second then shuts down.

We have tried a bunch of different tests to figure out the problem. We tried removing everything down to the basic components needed to run, and it still happened. During that test we tried each stick of RAM, his RAM, with and without the graphics card, and still face the same issue. Things got weird when we took everything out of the case, and it booted just fine. It even worked when we put all the pieces together outside of the case.. So we tried putting it into his case (he has the same one as me) and the issue happened again. So it has to be either the power supply or motherboard.

This weekend we are going to try running it outside of the case with the power supply in the case, and try running it with new screws, holds in the case, and with rubber washers between the scews/holds.

If it still does this we are going to RMA/return the motherboard and power supply, but before we do all this I was wondering if you guys had any ideas about what could be the issue?

Did you buy a heatsink for your cpu?

My money's on the power supply. Did you ever try switching that out?

For further information here is the motherboard and power supply I used

Power supply

Motherboard

I had this issue. Make sure your CPU power cable is connected to the motherboard. It's probably a good idea to check all the cables while you're at it.

@jams: Tried the stock heatsink and a separate one I bought, both worked outside the case

So let me get this straight: When removing the motherboard out of the case with or without components it works? But when putting it in the case it doesn't function? Are you guys sure it's not the board that is short circuiting because you have put too many motherboard standing screws? If one screw doesn't pop through the whole of the board, but instead under it, it will crash the system and can damage the motherboard.

First thing that came to my mind.

Sounds for sure like something is shorting out somewhere on the case.

Your power switch, stand-by or something case derived at fault. I got a faulty case when I did my first build.

Yeah, that sounds right for this problem. I had that happen to me once.

@fritzdude: hmmmm, we did use all of the stand off screws so that sounds like that could be it. Thanks!

Yeah. If you use all of them, you're shorting something.

Put the board in first, make a mental note of where the mounting holes are, remove the board, and put the stand offs in.

Cases come with mounts for standoffs for just about every make and model of board. A smaller board may need standoffs at the ends and in the middle, so the holes are drilled in. On a larger board, the middle isn't going to line up with the middle on the smaller board, so holes are drilled in. If you put stand offs in every hole, you'll have the metal of the standoff pushing against the motherboard where there's no hole, causing a short.

I have to agree when I heard this it sounded like something was shorting. Might want to grab a voltometer and do some testing if the standing screws does not solve it.

A poorly placed back plate for the motherboard connectors can also cause a short as well... I hate those things, the ones where you gotta fiddle about with those god awful prongs to make the back plate cover fit, one time I hate one of those prongs touching the motherboard in a weird way which was causing it to short, I just took it out and worked fine then.

It was the stand offs, we took a few off and it works perfectly. Thanks everyone!