Internals and Components

The first thing to note when looking at the internals are the three very thin and small heatsinks. That might be cause for concern in larger power supplies, but with the high efficiency there shouldn't be a lot of heat lost inside the PSU. The Gold certification requires at least 87% efficiency at 100% load, which would work out to at most 45W of internal heat loss. With the 120mm fan blowing on the components, things should be fine.

Looking at the power circuitry, starting at the input. Four Y- and two X-capacitors, one relay to handle current in-rush, current-compensated and linear chokes, and an MOV are all part of the EMI filtering. After that, HuntKey uses a common 10A bridge rectifier in a KBU housing. The PFC choke has its own plastic case, which is nice to see. Like Seasonic, HuntKey has different ICs for PWM and PFC. There's a CM6901X for switch control, which is physically in the secondary circuit. That's why they need the separate CM6502SX for PFC; most manufacturers combine both functions in one IC.There are two IRFB3206PBF in the secondary for active rectifying. Another interesting detail is the diode in the power factor preregulator. It's a component from QSpeed with one of the lowest reverse recovery charges in the inexpensive price range--usually a problem with CCM.

The main capacitor is a Rubycon USG rated at 85C/2000h and 220 μF. Two MOSFETS from ST Mircoelectronics follow (fully isolated TO-220FP casing), with a resonant topology and very efficient transformers. After rectification HuntKey has two DC-to-DC VRMs for +5V and +3.3V; both use all solid capacitors for filtering. The +12V rails also have plenty of solid capacitors, with a few liquid electrolyte caps as well.

This PSU has OVP on both sides, along with UVP, SCP, OCP, and OPP. It doesn't have OTP, but there's a diode for temperature measurements as part of the fan control. OCP worked fine in testing, tripping at 28A (336W).

There's not a lot of empty space on the PCB, the the PSU uses active cooling and an efficient design so that shouldn't be a problem; the 14cm casing could actually be shorter if HuntKey wanted. On the left is a large plastic piece to protect the PSU from short circuits caused by contact with external objects. Finally, the PCB uses first class material with good soldering. We've never seen this sort of quality in a retail 300W PSU before, so overall the internals are awesome!

Gallery: HuntKey R90

Cables and Connectors Results: Voltage Regulation and Quality
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  • JasperJanssen - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    Comparing to other high quality, low wattage, lowfeatured units, $80 seems way over the top. If it goes over $60 they'll be lucky to sell a single unit.
  • JasperJanssen - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    I just checked my local pricewatch, there's a Jumper 550 in there for 60 euro (which contrary to popular belief means 60 dollars, despite the exchange rate). The 550 is a different animal, it has hex grates on the end, but companies generally don't price the 300W low end model above the 550W near-top-end model in a given (Jumper) product range.
  • AnnihilatorX - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link

    In specification page, the sticker photo shows a logo which looks like battery level
    It reads, very high safety margin - can continuously and stabily output 400W

    Then why don't they just brand this as 350W?

    Something to do with 80Plus certification regarding efficiency at certain load levels?
  • Concillian - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link

    "Something to do with 80Plus certification regarding efficiency at certain load levels?"

    Indeed, check the efficiency chart and 110% load shows 86% efficiency.
    80+ gold certification requires 87% @ 100% load.

    If it were rated at 330W, they'd have to back it down to 80+ silver.
  • Martin Kaffei - Sunday, March 6, 2011 - link

    Correct. 400W e.g. is the rated power for room temperature and 80Plus Bronze.
    The power and efficiency is always temperature-dependent.
  • WintersEdge - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link

    When and where do you guys think this will be available for purchase? This is definitely the front-runner on my PSU shortlist for my upcoming sandybridge build. I was going to go for the SS X400 but 400W is overkill considering I plan to use the IGP, and it's also quite expensive.

    And what is up with those other PSU units cited at the very beginning of this review?? How come I can't find them for sale?? I looked up the FSP Group 250W model:
    http://www.fsp-group.com/english/1_product/2_detai...

    It looks uglier than butt-ugly, but I still wouldn't mind buying it if it was available somewhere... What's up with that?
  • bobbozzo - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link

    s/Season/Seasonic/
  • 7Enigma - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link

    Thanks for the great review Martin.

    This is exactly the kind of PSU most of us want. I'd personally like a 400w unit of the same quality for <$130 since I run a high-end video card, but for everything else this 300w unit is just about perfect. It is a bummer about the American version not having the sleeving and black paint job, but it's still a great PSU!
  • Martin Kaffei - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link

    I'm glad that you like the review.

    Maybe HuntKey will add sleeving for the final edition and has found a distributor in the USA. I've just heard they start to ship this PSU to France now. For about 60-65 €uro. Hope we get more informations soon.
  • iamkyle - Tuesday, March 8, 2011 - link

    AT!!! Seriously - we need bar graphs like the other articles so we can COMPARE the efficiency of the PSU's you review!

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