HuntKey Jumper/R90 300W 80Plus Gold
by Martin Kaffei on March 5, 2011 12:00 AM ESTA Great Product, HuntKey!
While it can be pretty easy to find 80Plus Silver power supplies with output ratings of 700W or more, finding such PSUs in sub-500W offerings is rare. Even if we drop the requirement to 80 Plus Bronze, Newegg as an example lists only 12 PSUs rated at 400W or less. Of those, five come from Seasonic, and the only 80 Plus Gold offering is the $130 X-400FL we've mentioned throughout this review. HuntKey looks to add a second with their R90 / Jumper 300G, and it's the first 300W 80 Plus Gold we've seen. Perhaps more importantly, it's already available in Japan for retail customers, not just OEMs. Unfortunately, those of us in the US and Europe will have to wait a bit longer, as HuntKey is still looking for distributors that are willing to carry this sort of product. Hopefully they can find them soon, as this is a very compelling power supply, particularly if they can match or exceed the current 7980 Yen ($96) price point. Let's recap.
Starting with the cables and connectors, while it might be useful to have a longer ATX12V/EPS12V cable, the number of available connectors is outstanding. The R90 has two PCIe connectors (on one cable), along with two peripheral cables with four SATA and four Molex connectors. It might be nice to have a floppy Molex adapter, but you can buy one separately if you really need it--but shop locally, as shipping will probably be five times as much as the cost of the adapter! All told, there are enough connectors here to match most 500W PSUs, which is one more reason the expected price of ~$90 is acceptable.
Moving to the internals and overall build, the R90 / 300G has a good PCM, high quality capacitors, and a small high frequency transformer to save PCB space. This is one reason why the power of this design should not be underestimated. It's a strong PSU in a 14cm housing. In addition, HuntKey implemented all of the important safety functions on several ICs, and these features worked properly in testing. The high efficiency comes courtesy of the active rectifying, resonant topology, and well chosen MOSFETs with good characteristics. I've had a quick look at a SuperFlower PSU with almost the same quality, but it lacked OCP and used a cheaper material for the PCB. Right now, there really isn't anything comparable to this HuntKey model. Here's a recap of the performance to sum things up.
| HuntKey R90 (Jumper 300G) | |
| Features | Measurements |
| Active PFC | 0.973-0.987 |
| 80 Plus Gold | Up to 90% efficiency |
| High quality capacitors | Less than 0.50% ripple & noise |
| 1200RPM fan | No more than 26 dBA |
Our testing confirms that the R90 achieves the necessary marks for 80 Plus Gold certification, and efficiency is 85% even at a 30W load. The power factor is always above 0.90, though it's a bit lower if used on a 230VAC power grid. Ripple and noise are also well within specification, and the 3.3V rail in particular is virtually flawless; the 5V and both 12V rails are also good, with ripple less than half of the allowed maximum. Overall, we can't find any real points of criticism--even the appearance and cable sleeving are nice (though the 300G skips the sleeving).
We definitely look forward to seeing HuntKey's 90R / 300G in other markets outside of Japan, as this PSU would be perfect for HTPCs. The Seasonic X-400FL is still a viable alternative, though, depending on the pricing of the R90. Besides HTPCs, average PCs looking to "go green" and even gamers with moderate GPUs might be interested in this small, energy-saving PSU. HuntKey informs us that the GTX 460 (about the same as the HD 6950) are the maximum level of GPU they can support on this unit, and that's quite realistic, since +12V OCP is 28A. HuntKey's R90 is the sort of power supply we'd like to see more readily available, especially since the vast majority of PCs rarely need more than 200W (and often less than that). We'd give them an award, but we'll wait for more information on pricing and availability outside of Japan first.
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Beenthere - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
...then I would not touch their products for many reliability and ethical reasons.Taft12 - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
A near 0% failure rate among hundreds of PCs in my organization. These are Optiplexes with 80Plus certified PSUs stipulated in our contract. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these Huntkeys are in these machines.It's a different universe on the Inspiron side which you sound familiar with. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for.
JarredWalton - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
Yeah, Dell isn't without their problem computers in the business world (I supported some old GX150 systems back in 2003-2006 that had a bit of problem in the memory subsystem that would make Photoshop crash the PC all the time), but by and large the Optiplex and Latitude line is very reliable compared to consumer systems.clarkn0va - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link
I don't know. We have a handful of Latitudes here and every single one of them have serious IO issues. The Windows logon sound is choppy, the mouse pointer freezes constantly then plays instant catch-up; typing is the same. We've turned off the page file (4GB RAM, W7x64), tuned the hdd settings, tried readyboost--nothing fixes this.But we could compare anecdotes all day. The OP also mention ethical reason, and the public record for Dell's underhanded dealings is long and detailed. I too will be steering clear of everything Dell for a long time to come.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled discussion of Huntkey.
ckryan - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
I suppose the main reason capacity is an issue is due to the efficiency curve of a PSU. With loads optimized for 20, 50, and 100 percent, a 35w idle system is more inefficient with a higher capacity PSU. But not all PSUs have problems at less than 10%; the Seasonic X-650 is 88% efficient at a 60w load. The flip side is 35w idle system won't waste much even at an abysmal 70%. So while I welcome more reasonable options in the >500w watt space, especially excellent units like the Huntkey, I'm not sure dramatically over powered units are as huge of an issue as it used to be. Still, I think it's ridiculous that there aren't more 350 to 500 watt units that are of a high level in terms of efficiency and quality. I would certainly pay a premium for a higher end unit, regardless of capacity.We need more units like the HuntKey.
Scour - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
Peripheral 3x SATA + 1x PATA 45-90cm3x PATA + 1x SATA 45-90cm
In addition there are two peripheral cables with four SATA and four Molex connectors.
So what, did it have 6 SATA and 2 4-Pin or 4/4?
Overall, nice review of a nice PSU :)
Concillian - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
Even though I would have bought something like this instead of what I bought recently, traditionally low wattage high quality units have a really difficult time gaining traction. Sales are usually really slow on these kinds of units.Like it or not most people don't read reviews or know (or care) that PSUs are low efficiency at low load, and see that they can get a 550-650W 80+ gold unit for only a few bucks more and go for double the power for the headroom.
Also doesn't help that video card MFRs put PSU requirements that are totally absurd (HD5770 "requires" a 450W PSU... yeah, don't tell that to mine hooked up to a 380W PSU and running fine.)
Ultimately, making an 80+ gold PSU costs money and the unit will be expensive.
This seems to have efficiency at low load that rivals the PicoPSUs and is a lot less hassle and more headroom if someone's using a case that can accommodate a full size PSU. Probably not too much different in price from a Pico either. From that standpoint it's an interesting PSU. Lets hope it sells enough to keep a couple units like this on the market for a while.
Operandi - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
I think you are 100% right, Seasonic used to make a 330 watt S12, the lowest version available now is 380 watts.Even if they know their system will only draw 200 - 250 watts max the average buyer would rather have a 500 watt PSU of mediocre quality than a high quality 300 - 350 watt PSU. And most users don't have any real idea of how much power they need or are just going my what is recommended on the box which is always some crazy inflated number when you are talking about graphics cards.
As to the unit itself I prefer the played down looks of the American version. And it dose look like an awesome PSU but $90 is a lot when I can get an 300 watt 80+ OEM Seasonic for $40.
Zoomer - Sunday, March 6, 2011 - link
It will not be $90. Look out what other parts cost in Japan and you'll see. I guesstimate $50 or so.7Enigma - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link
Hope this was a joke post, because there is no way this will be below $80.