see above. In a way... yes. All components of the pc installed as it should and it booted into windows setup without issue, once I sorted the monitor gaff. Annoyed at myself for being a moron though.
Worst case scenario is that ebuyer wont accept the return (as its not faulty and has been unboxed) and i'll have to attempt a multi monitor setup for the first time so that I actually using the extra monitor I now have in the house.