New build challenge - incomplete POST

[Scout dad]

Showing my son the joys of building his own PC and relearning the process myself.  We have the following:

>ASUS PRIME B350 MB
>AMD Ryzen 5 1600x CPU
>G SKILL Trident Z DDR 8G RAM (quantity 2)
>EVGA 600W PSU
>TESSERACT Deep Cool Case
>SCANDISK 480G SSD
>Windows 10 OS (Not yet installed)

Assembly has been the fun part, and we both agree that making the front panel connections to the MB has been our greatest achievement to date.  We powered up for the first time yesterday and got spinning fans and an initial beep followed by one sustained and three short beeps, followed by one sustained and four short beeps, followed by one sustained.  Here's what we've done to troubleshoot and the results:

>Disconnected SSD - No change in behavior
>Installed a single DDR stick - No change in behavior from either stick regardless of the MB port used
>Removed DDR sticks - Fans power up, but no beeps
>Reset CMOS - Maybe an additional 20 seconds to hear the initial beep followed by the beep pattern described above

Here are my suspicions:

>No graphics card - The ASUS has native VGA and HDMI ports.  There are no jumpers, so I can't see why this would be a show stopper.
>No CPU fan - I thought it strange that AMD does not include a cooler for the 1600x.  I might have gone with the R5 1600 had I known this prior to making the purchase.  We won't be overclocking the CPU for the time being, but if the MB is expecting a fan, then I can see the incomplete POST.  Thoughts/suggestions/gentle mocking appreciated!

[Mark.]

right off the bat, I'd be checking your RAM is DDR4 and has the frequency (MHz) compatible with your motherboard.
don't use an add-on video card just yet, just run it with the onboard card to eliminate one avenue of those beeps.


next is the CPU fan, definitely install one, you need it.
not only for cooling but the mobo BIOS will have some sort of "hey, where's the fan stupid?" warning indicator.


then look up the ASUS website for a 3-1-4-1 beep code.

[camerongray]

You'll need a graphics card on that system, the Ryzen CPUs don't have integrated graphics hardware, the ports are on the motherboard so that future AMD APUs (which do have integrated graphics) will be able to use them.  Of course there may be other issues but you'll definitely need some sort of add on graphics card with that CPU.