Huntkey Green Star 550 W is as flawed as the other members from the Green Star family: LW-6550SG exploded when we tried to pull its labeled power.
When we pulled 80% of the labeled capacity (around 427 W in our tests) efficiency was low at 77% and ripple and noise were above the maximum admissible (157 mV at +12 V and 58 mV at +5 V).
The manufacturer clearly plays with the fact that someone buying this power supply probably won’t pull near half of its labeled capacity (a typical PC with a good video card pulls between 100 W and 150 W). However when we buy a product labeled “550 W” we want it to be able to deliver its labeled power, it doesn’t matter if we are going to pull this amount or not. This is called false advertisement.
And it only provides two SATA power connectors.
Internally it uses the exact same rectifiers for the +12 V outputs as the 400 W and 450 W models from Green Star series. This is ridiculous. Current limits were increased at +5 V and +3.3 V with the use of rectifiers with higher current limit, but nowadays we need more current at +12 V, not at +5 V and +3.3 V. This model uses more powerful switching transistors than these 400 W and 450 W models, but they are still under dimensioned, as they exploded.
If you are looking for a true 550 W power supply don’t buy this product. Take a look on the list of power supplies we already tested and that got an award seal for choosing a good product that won’t explode or damage your equipment.
Keep in mind that this problem seems to be specific with the Green Star product line, as we reviewed Huntkey Titan 650 W (Rocketfish 700 W) and it didn’t explode. We will try to review other power supplies from this manufacturer in the near future.
