SeaSonic S12-430 power switch

TomMe · Post by **TomMe** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:38 am

My SeaSonic S12-430 has a power switch at its back. Does anyone know what it does exactly?

Someone told me that when you turn off a power strip that has a switch, it can still leave the devices connected to the phase wire (whatever that is).

I wonder if this applies to my PSU, because whenever I work inside my computer I turn off the switch of both my PSU and the power strip, just to be sure. I don't unplug because I want to stay connected to the earth, but I'm concerned my components are connected to the phase wire when I'm working inside.

Someone else on another forum mentioned that if the motherboard has a +5VSB LED and it goes off when you switch the PSU off, you should be safe. Does anyone have that kind of LED with the same PSU?

disphenoidal · Post by **disphenoidal** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:52 pm

I'm guessing whoever said this phase wire stuff meant ground, and flipping the switch on the back will not disconnect the ground. When you turn off your computer with the switch on the front, you don't turn off the psu entirely. It still makes the stand-by voltage so that you can turn it on again. That's why touching a screw-driver across the header the switch is connected to turns the computer on. The switch on the back turns off the AC going into the PSU, turning it off completely.

TomMe · Post by **TomMe** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:15 pm

No, I'm sure he didn't mean ground. Some switches only interrupt one wire (blue or brown) when switched off. Luckily, as I discovered yesterday, my power strip interrupts both so my PSU has always been entirely off while working inside.

On the pictures here in the S12-430 review, you can see the switch is connected to a small PCB. So it's not clear whether both wires are interrupted or not. The ground (green-yellow) definitely seems to be connected to the PSU case.