No boot

[PGit]

I've been building up a PC (the first time I have attempted it) and it doesn't want to boot. The CPU fan spins, the hard drive spins up and the lights come on but nothing seems to get through to the monitor. All i get is a black screen.

I thought it was probably the graphics card but i tried it with another and that didn't work either, the RAM seems to be fine so I'm guesing either mother or CPU. However I have heard that if the hard drive starts then the CPU is working, is this true?

The specs are
motherboard PCchips M848a
AMD Duron 800mhz
2*128 DDR SDRAM
HD
Floppy
CD-ROM
300watt psu

Oh and merry Yuletide.

[PGit]

Thanks for your replies

I have now tried it with just the cpu, memory and graphics card installed and still nothing on the screen (monitor does  work though) no writing or anything.

It doesn't make any beeps though it is capable of doing as it beeped when I tried the boot up without the video card.