ATX to Amiga 2000 PSU shell experiment

[psxphill]

I get the impression you have no electronic, or even mechanical assembly experience, and you're playing with dangerous, and deadly voltages.

110v isn't deadly. Splicing a switch into the positive wire shouldn't be too hard. You need to use some thick wire, but you can steal that from an old power cable.
 
As long as you are careful and double check everything and don't do anything stupid like leaving exposed wired. I'd use a multi meter to check for continuity and shorts before even thinking of plugging it into the mains.
 
Sure it's possible to mess it up, which is why you position the computer far away enough away from the power socket that when you turn the power on at the wall that if it blows up that you're not going to get injured. First turn the power on when the switch is off, then turn the power off, unplug it and turn the computers switch to on, plug back in, turn the power on & see what happens.
 
If it doesn't work then you'll need to start thinking about checking voltages while it's turned on, but you can unplug it all and become calm before you try that.

[psxphill]

Because the resistance of your body is no where near low enough. "its not the voltage, its the current that kills you" is correct, but without a high enough voltage you won't conduct enough current to do anything. You could have a 1000amp 20volt supply and feel nothing.

There is some more data here.
 
http://www.highvoltageconnection.com/articles/ElectricShockQuestions.htm
 
Making sure your environment is safe is probably the best thing you can do, so that if you do get a shock that you don't fall back and crack your head open.

[psxphill]

The only difference between the white wire and the green ground wire is the white is grounded at the power station and the green is grounded at the Breaker box.

The neutral will only go as far back to the sub station, not the powerstation.
 
In the UK we'd call one neutral (substation) and the other earth (house).
 
The powerstation isn't necessarily just connected to earth at the sub station and either way there is likely to be a potential difference between the two.
 
I don't know about the US, and in the UK it's not everywhere but the neutral is connected to ground at various points to try to stop this.
 
http://www.emfs.info/Sources+of+EMFs/distribution/UK/
 
edit: they have a link for the US too http://www.emfs.info/Sources+of+EMFs/distribution/USA/
 
If there is a fault then the neutral can become live, which can cause a lot of problems. If you have an RCD then it tries to save you from some of these.