How do I tell if my power supply works?

[Hirachi]

I ordered a power supply from new egg about a month ago specifically a Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W Continuous@40°C, 80Plus Bronze Certified,Modular Cable Design,ATX12V v2.3/ EPS12V,SLI Ready,CrossFire Ready,Active PFC"Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply.
I am hoping that will have the power to feed for my GTX 570 AR superclocked which I order today. I do not have a mobo or CPu yet I'm in a decision of getting a Intel 1157 mobo w/ Intel sandy Bridge 2500k or AM3+ mobo w/ Phenom II X6 1090T BE.
Anyways when I got my PSU I hooked it up to some fans in mase to test and see if it works so I plugged it in and turned it on nothing happen the PSU nor the case light up nor the fans started to spin. I unhooked it from the case and it still wouldn't power up. My mom said that it needs a mobo inorder to be "trigger"
to turn on, is that true?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

not entirely, you need to short the green wire and any black wire on the 20+4pin plug to turn the psu on, be careful though
Moto

 

[jb6684]

Wow, so mom's DO know everything! Yes you do need the motherboard and the front panel switch connected to send a signal to the power supply to "trigger" / turn on.....

AH, on the other post PLEASE don't mess with your power supply without connecting all the cables properly to the motherboard.... a 1000 watt power supply can flat out KILL YOU if you cross the wrong wires....

 

[hunter315]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4
You can test it as shown in that video, its perfectly safe if you do it right, just pay attention to your colors and its fine.

 

[Hirachi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4
You can test it as shown in that video, its perfectly safe if you do it right, just pay attention to your colors and its fine.

Awww no. Thats too risky for me since I'm not suicidal. I'd rather wait till I get a motherboard.

 

[RetiredChief]

Wow - Need to correct a misconception. Unless you start a fire when you crossed the output wires and could not get out.
It is not wattage that kills, as far as the voltages coming out of the PSU, it is no diff than a 250 Watt, ie 12 Volts is 12 volts. The amperage is dependent on load resistance. In terms of the human body the resistance is faIrly high and 250 w psu will supply the same current thru an individual as a 1000 W psu will - LOW most will not even feel unless you stick your tounge on the wires, or pee on it

Do not get me wrong, the 110 AC, or 240 AC that is exposed INSIDE the psu could be leathal (not the output DC voltages)- and that again has nothing to do with wattage rating.

 

[hunter315]

Are you afraid to get near your car battery too?

A power supply is a constant voltage system, not a constant current system, so at most you are working with 12V at the DC output side, there are safety rules in place about the levels of voltages that consumers can handle, 12V is very low voltage so there are no regulations on dealing with it, but the high voltage inside of the PSU does require skill hence why there is a label that says no user serviceable parts inside.

The worst thing that will happen is if you were to short the green wire to the black wire and have a yellow wire shorted to a black wire at the same time you might make your paper clip get really hot, but thats about it and it would require you using two paper clips, it is physically impossible using a single paper clip to short something in a dangerous manner since there is no power on anything except for the green wire, and the 5VSB rail, all of the yellow, red, and orange wires have no power until you successfully short the green to the black.