Bart Bervoets wrote:
Is it bad for a computer power supply to be switched on without a load?
I know it's possible to start the power supply, i get loads of power
supplies in
from returns but i don't want to chance blowing a mainboard up
(i could hook an old cd rom drive up to put a load on 5 and 12v but
would like to avoid clutter.)

Just use an old hard drive or CD-ROM drive. That should be enough load
to get the power supply started.