Can I start up my PC even without RAM and Monitor?

[sponaris25]

Hi,

I am a beginner in PC building. My rig is almost complete. I got the following already assembled:

asus z170-a
6600k
kraken x52
evga 650watt psu
samsung 850 evo 250gb
nzxt s340 elite

As the title states, will I be able to check all these hardwares or see if my system is running even without RAM and Monitor? Need your expertise please. Thank you in advance!

 

[chegalhavara]

No. Without Ram the computer wont POST. Meaning you cant do anything without Ram.
POST= Power On Self Test.
If it doesnt find RAM the POST will fail, thus not boot.
You can check if it has power.. but thats it.

 

[sponaris25]

No. Without Ram the computer wont POST. Meaning you cant do anything without Ram.
POST= Power On Self Test.
If it doesnt find RAM the POST will fail, thus not boot.
You can check if it has power.. but thats it.

 

[sponaris25]

Thank you for helping me out with my query. At this point. checking if it has power is all i need.

 

[photonboy]

Your first test should actually be to run MEMTEST86 to ensure your CPU can correctly read and write to your system memory (DDR4 sticks). Do this prior to installing WINDOWS because any issues there could fail to install or install corrupted data.

www.memtest86.com

What you NEED (besides USB stick) for that (and going into the motherboard BIOS) is:

1) motherboard
2) DDR4 stick or sticks (see motherboard manual for best position)
3) CPU
4) CPU cooler with fan working (CPU_FAN header for example)
5) Power Supply (attached to motherboard)
6) Monitor
7) Graphics (iGPU in CPU or graphics card. If iGPU attach monitor to motherboard, otherwise the graphics card. I always test using the iGPU first and add graphics card once basic MEMTEST86 passes)

Other:
In motherboard BIOS I would also:
a) use CPU default + XMP setting (overclock later when system is shown to be stable)
b) enable SECURE BOOT if available (helps prevent boot-time malware infections)

I test my system before installing into a case (MEMTEST86). I would also assume the liquid cooler would leak so have a BIN or something to put everything in then maybe just run a few full loops in Memtest86 to prove no obvious leaks while it's testing the memory anyway.