Extreme gremlin frying my motherboards, please help!

I have never had to ask for help trouble shooting a comp problem, but i suppose there is a first for everything, thank you for your time.
So a few weeks ago I bought a slew of new parts to make a new gaming computer. I bought: HAF 922 case, MSI P55GD80 Mobo, Corsair 1600mhz cl8 ram, Corsair H50 water cooler, i5 750, MSI gtx 460 Cyclone 1GB, OCZ modXstream Pro 700w PSU, Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB. (i do not have a surge protector at this point)
1st attempt: I use 9 of those standard gold plated/copper? mounting reciptacles for my mobo. I plug in my 24pin and the 8pin power connectors, I put everything else together being aware of static electricity, and as soon as i press the power button it fires up for LITERALLY less than a second then immdiately shuts off, and will not boot at all. Even multiple attempts it will not fire up. So, I take the motherboard back to Fry's where i bought it and explained, they tested and verified it wouldn't boot and gave me a new one on the spot.
2nd attempt I install the motherboard with care, plug everything in its respective spot, hit the power button, and it powers up for 10 seconds this time... then shuts off on its own AND as i am looking inside the case i see a tiny tiny stream of smoke come up and can smell it as well..? Now it exhibits the same symptoms as the previous motherboard, boots up for half a second, then shuts right off. So, i carry my entire computer up to Frys and tell them the story and requst to dissasemble and reassemble with a new motherboard with a Customer service rep beside me to prove im not an idiot to them.
3rd attempt The Fry guy and I take the old mobo out and put a new P55GD80 in, plug everything up, and it fires up and works fine...cool... THEN, 23 days later, i power off my computer with the power button on my case, and when i go to power it back up there it is again, powers up for half a second then immdiately shuts off. This mobo is past fry's 15 day return policy, so i RMA it back to MSI.
4th attempt I buy a new Corsair 850w Modular PSU because i suspect my OCZ PSU might be bad. I also buy a Belkin surge protector that comes with a $300,000 connected hardware coverage. I go BACK to frys and buy another MSI p55GD80, I put it in the computer with the new PSU and everything else....I hit power and it turns on for half a second and instantly shuts off. GRR!
5th attempt I return to frys with my latest failed mobo and figure why not try a different mobo, incase frys got a bad shipment of p55gd80's?(highly unlikely) I trade in and get a Asus p7p55D PRO. I install the motherboard in my case along with ONLY this: Ram(in dimm 1 and dimm3), cpu(with out any cooler), the pwr,reset,and front led connectors, and the back plate for the corsiar water cooler on the mobo. I also first inspected if the back of the mobo was grounding out on any deformaties on the case and i saw nothing. The backplate caused no intrusions as well from what i could tell. I hit the power button and the board comes on for 1 second and shuts right off, same as the other ones...

My thoughts: the only thing that can be left is
1. An insane electrical gremlin that gets past my surge protector AND my PSU?(what are the chances right?)
2. My power cord is brand new but maybe it's secretly possesed by the Devil.
3. My HAF 922 case power button is somehow faulty and is frying every mobo it tries to power up? Unlikely as well.
4. RAM couldn't do this could it?
5. The 23 days where my comp worked just throws me off so much in the trouble shooting process...

So if you have ANY thoughts or ideas or have heard anythign like this before please let me know. I've been making computers for a few years now and never came across something like this.

Thanks overclockers!!

Dang. Attempt #3 is really throwing me off. If it was something you were doing that was totally wrong, why would it work for three weeks?

Right?? But it is slightly suspicious that the thrid attempt failed right after i powered off the comp. I manually shut it off holding down the power button, then 5 seconds later try to power it up and nothing... Those 23 days that it was working, i probably hit the actually power button maybe 1 other time? So that makes me lean towards a bad case power button..but can something like that really fry a mobo? It doesnt make electrical sense.

If you haven't already, try removing the board from the case and install only the CPU / Intel HSF, RAM modules installed in A1 and B1 DIMM slots, and the GTX 460 installed in the blue PCI-E x16 slot. Connect the monitor, reset CMOS, then momentarily jump the 2 PWR front panel connector pins to power up the board. You can do this by using a spare MB jumper, or by connecting the front panel connector to the pins, then shorting the pins at the end of the connector.

Thank you, i will try this to rule out the case when i get my new mother board tomorrow at FRY's. Hopefully it's the case, but i get a feeling it's not.

Too be continued...