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I have just bought a new power supply for my PC.

Can I plug it in and start it up without inserting into my PC?

I want to see how loud it is.

Will it blow up?

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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

You should not power the PSU without load.

A power supply that is turned on with no load attached will either fail to function or will function improperly... Better-quality supplies will detect a no-load situation and shut down.

The amount of load required by a particular power supply is often specified as its minimum load... You will sometimes see these minimum current requirements listed as part of the power supply's output specifications.

Modern power supplies have drastically reduced the degree to which loading is an issue. Most newer power supplies have very small +3.3 V and +5 V load requirements, and many have no minimum at all for +12 V. The lower loading requirements make testing and troubleshooting much easier.

PSUs are supposed to be either connected with your system or loaded with special devices for testing. I would suggest that you connect the Unit to your system and then check the sound.

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up vote 2 down vote

It's not advised to plug a powersupply in without a load. You should either plug it into a motherboard or a psu tester. Some advanced psu will simply not power on without a load but in many cases the psu without load will fail (and in some cases perminant damage).

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Depending on the psu you could probably get away with connecting an old optical drive or hard drive. – Col Aug 29 '09 at 16:12
Yup, it all depends on what the load requirements are of the psu model. As a common practice when I'm testing a psu I have a 1' AT extension so I'll pop that on and then use an old AT motherboard to see if it gives me the missing RAM beeps. – Duey Aug 29 '09 at 18:09
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