ATX Bench Power Supply Mod

Modifying a standard ATX power supply into a bench supply has become a popular thing to do, because it provides a selection of voltages to easily use. Standard power supplys will have +3.3V, +5V, +12V, and -12V.

I was able to buy this standard ATX psu for quite cheap, at around $14 on sale. The components and PCB are not the best quality, but it works, and has a low failure rate.

Following a few guides that are easily found online, I decided to modify this psu into my own bench supply, and here are the photos:

Luckily I had two DVD slot covers from my computer case that weren't needed, so I found that stacking them together made for a great face plate on the new bench supply. The blue LED (left side) is a status from the psu to signal that power is operating as normal when turned on. The flip switch with the safety cover (right side) is to control the on/off function. There is also another flip switch, which came built into the psu already (as most have), that controls the on/off. So in order to power up, this one must be set to on, and then the safety flip switch acts as the secondary control to make it actually turn on.

There's also a 12V to 5V DC USB module that I have, which could be put in to charge/power USB devices.