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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Sabresiberian - Tuesday, March 8, 2011 - link
Why can't Anandtech ever run PSUs that normal people use? No one cares about these low-power pieces of junk!/end sarcasm
(To those who don't get it, this is a jab at all those posters who whine and cry when Anandtech runs articles on high-powered PSUs and make the same kind of comment. Anyone who has read more than one PSU article on Anandtech knows they do high quality reviews of PSUs that are across the board in power rating and usefulness to people who buy them, or just want to know more about them. Hats off and /bow to Martin for once again giving us something interesting and informative.)
;)
MrSpadge - Tuesday, March 8, 2011 - link
Would be nice to see efficiency measured for us European / Australian / whatever people as well. I know at ~220 V efficiency should be 1 - 2% higher, but it's still nice to see the actual measurement.MrS
Tinhead - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Last 9months i have heard more and more friends with PSU problems.Most of their PSU's are about 2-5years old and they either die on some "rails" or completely.
Most of them has been used for servers, on 24/7 etc..
One thing im wondering about is how long should we expect to get a PSU to run?
Can we expect 24/7 for 5years or 2years?
The parameter is not that popular since it is hard to test, the users that are driving the enhancements are considered mostly to be gamers, and they like power and efficiency more then MBTF.
Another factor is how does the PSU preform with under or over voltage?
And ofc how it handles spikes, and other "dirt" in the wires. Which is more common then most users know.
(one reason why i use a UPS to my equipment.)
Also it would be interesting if you can test with 220V AC since that is a common standard and it does affect the performance and operation of the PSU.
Martin Kaffei - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I know what you mean. AC stress is a problem as well as a good way to test power supplies. In fact it is usually easier for a PSU to handle DC loads than transients. Nevertheless it is indispensable to have an AC source with a clean output for better comparability in all tests. Later that year, I hope the AC side gets more attention after adding some components.24/7 ist basically no problem for a PSU but the lifetime depends on many factors. capacitor aging is a problem, EMI immission is, temperatures are. In my opinion servers should get other PSUs than usual PCs. The letter will usually be changed after 2 or 3 years, so voltage/ripple/EMI during a relative short time is more important than endurance (which includes "long life" capacitors). Some older PSUs died in my PCs after a year or two, but I'm sure the quality is better today if you buy known brands. Specially brands who have to make sure, that the PSU works 5 years because of their warranty program. But that's no guarantee for all products. We aren't able to make long time tests over a year, even manufacturers can't do that. Their "long time" tests take a week and the rest is just math.
HangFire - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 - link
>One thing im wondering about is how long should we expect to get a PSU to run?The capacitors define the lifetime of a quality power supply. They are rated for a certain number of years at a given temp. Typical numbers are 3 and 5 years as you go up the price ladder. Unless there is a bad batch (it happens), quality Japanese capacitors can be counted on to last their rated lifetime.
For very low end PSU's (and there are a lot of them out there), besides the capacitors it is components being run over-spec that will define the lifetime (burn out first). For example a 400W rated power supply made up of 250W level components will have one life expectancy at 150W and another at 250W. You can read some recent reviews of such power supplies over on Hardware Secrets.
The warranty is supposed to give you some idea of what to expect, but not really. Seasonic's lowest end series have a 1 year warranty but you can expect them to be useful much longer. Diablotek offers 3 years on some of theirs, but recent published reviews cast doubt on their lifetime if used at their rated capacity.
Onus - Friday, March 11, 2011 - link
After seeing Gabriel blow up many overrated Huntkey pieces of dung, I'm leery of the brand, but this is the sort of PSU I'd like to see more often. I've built a couple of project PCs to test various ideas, and a PSU like this would be perfect for a mini-ITX gamer, running a HD5770 or GTX460. I'd be worried about ventilation with a fanless PSU in that application, but this would be good. Hopefully they'll do a modular version.The reason GPU manufacturers list outrageously high minimum wattages is they are trying to account for all the Chokemax PSUs out there that can barely manage 60% of what's on their labels.
With the 80+ Bronze EA-380D at $45, this can't cost any more than $60 if Huntkey expects it to sell. In this wattage range, an efficiency difference of even 10% doesn't amount to all that much.