It's a little late for me to be saying this, but it's a lot easier to test the basic components while the MOBO is out of the case (the process is known as benching). There are fewer things to go wrong, making troubleshooting much easier, not to mention getting at components is much easier.
This video will give you, among other things, detailed instructions on how to bench a new MOBO, should you (or anyone else) be curious. It's also usually easier to install the CPU cooler while the MOBO is outside the case (with some cooler/case combinations, it's the only way).
I'm so glad I bench tested my MOBO before putting it in the case. After I had installed the MOBO, etc. in the case, I ran into a problem. Had I not benched it first, I would not have known if the problem was with the MOBO, the CPU, the RAM, the GPU, or something else. Since benching had already told me the MOBO, CPU, RAM, and GPU played well together, I knew it had to be something else and didn't have to waste time ripping everything out trying to figure out what was wrong (it turned out to be a reversed front panel switch connector, which was weird since those connectors aren't supposed to be polarized; whatever, it worked after I "unreversed" it and I never argue with success).
While I got my little notebook (and its netbook predecessors) strictly for use when I'm traveling, it's handy to have as a backup computer if my desktop is down.
And there are instructions but they are absolutely useless. Cooler is Xigmatek Achilles.
