I've read and read and read many sites on this and I finally gave up and decided to ask-

I'm working on a Custom PC case and I'm trying to decide on a button/switch to turn it on. I found one and I dont know if it will work because a few sites I visited said I needed a Momentary switch(?) But the switch I've found doesnt look like that and the information given on the website about the switch isnt exactly helpfull either...

So i thought I'd post and see if anyone has or knew anyone else that tried to use a similar switch and if it worked or didnt work...

heres the link to the switch...

Military Switch with Style Cover w/Blue LED Products Model: MSWITCH-LED-BL [MSWITCH-LED-BL] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come

any help would be great!!

thanks!

Hello ginxed and welcome to PCHF,

I'll mark this thread open so it attracts our highly skilled tech staff.

Thanks for your patience,

Clever_Duck

That switch will probably work - but it will be a little bit nonstandard...

Think of how your power button works - when you press it, it makes contact for a second but pops back out. It makes a "momentary" connection in a circuit, telling the PC to either power on or off. It's not staying down to hold the electrical connection.

Now, think of the switch on the back of your power supply, this one clearly has an ON position and and OFF position. When the switch is in the ON position, it is holding the circuit closed and therefore letting juice into the PC - which ends when the switch is flipped back to the OFF position. That's how this military switch works.

You COULD, in theory, rig this switch into the system - but I think it would be setup as more of a complete kill switch, eliminating ALL power to the system, whereas a standard PC power button acts more like a "Soft-Off" power button. Old, old AT style PCs had a switch more like the military one...

I'm not sure if that was much help - it sounded better in my head.