Test motherboard without GPU or HDD

MassiveEwok · 1 May 2015 at 10:02

I was wondering if anyone can help. I am building a PC and I have everything other then the graphics card or the hard drive. Installing the heatsink was a huge pain and I'm a little worried I put too much pressure on the CPU when installing. Also I think I put on too much thermal paste, I put on the correct amount initially however we had to take it off for a while and my friend (who I'm starting to think may not have known what he was talking about) said I should put on a little more so it gets a good seal on it (which I don't think is the point of thermal paste but whatever). Anyway I was wondering if there was a way to test everything is working and undamaged without building the whole thing (which would mean waiting a month). Also is it a good idea to take off the heatsink and check the thermal paste situation. Thanks for any help! Oh and juts FYI my motherboard has no on board graphics if that makes a difference.

mahius · 2 May 2015 at 00:14

All you need to test the mobo is to have the CPU, CPU heatsink and the RAM installed with just the 4(+4) pin CPU power and 20(+4) pin MOBO power cables connected from the PSU. Plug in a mouse and monitor onto the MOBO, modern day CPUs should have integrated graphics and check to see if you can get into the BIOS. While you're there, you can check CPU temps which should give some indication of how well the thermal paste is applied. Also, most modern MOBOs don't have integrated graphics since it's usually on the processor instead. Oh and you can use a metal screwdriver to short the power pins on the connector you'd usually plug the front case IO into.

RJC · 2 May 2015 at 06:55

Hello amd welcome to the forum

What is the system specs?

If you have no integtrated or external graphics the motherboard would most probably send a video error code and ideally you would want to pop into the BIOS to check the temps.

With thermal compound little makes a big impact to much can have a negative affect on temps.

MassiveEwok · 6 May 2015 at 10:14

Thanks for the reply's guys. My mobo is an Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark S "Sabranco" Intel Z97 with a 4790k Intel i7, I've just realized there is a HDMI on the back and something called a display port, so can I view the bios through the HDMI? I have everything to connect it up what I would really like to know is what exactly am I looking for. Do I just hook it up, turn it on and will the bios come up? and if it does, does that mean everything is fine? Also if I do view the temps what kind of temps am I looking for? The cooler is a Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler if that helps

Thanks a lot for any information you can give me!

MassiveEwok · 6 May 2015 at 10:16

Oh and the processor does have Integrated HD 4600 Graphics apparently so will that work?

RJC · 6 May 2015 at 10:20

Yep, you use the HDMI or Display port using the integrated GPU. But I would use a computer monitor as the BIOS may no show up on a normal monitor due to the res.

In the BIOS just check for temps ect - but you will need a memory stick installed.

MassiveEwok · 6 May 2015 at 11:01

thanks, will an external hard drive do?

MassiveEwok · 28 May 2015 at 13:52

does anyone know?