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The Cooler Master V650 Gold has impeccable build quality. Chicony, the OEM of this unit, used high-quality parts, including good lines of Japanese electrolytic and polymer capacitors, along with a large number of Infineon FETs and a fluid dynamic bearing fan. This is why the provided warranty is so long, at ten-years, matching the competition's offerings.
The platform's design is also modern, with a half-bridge topology and resonant converter on the primary side, and synchronous rectification and DC-DC converters on the secondary side. Nonetheless, the design lacks effective surge and inrush current protection. In other words, there is no MOV in the transient filter, and the bulk cap's high inrush currents are not suppressed by an NTC thermistor, as is the case in the majority of power supplies nowadays. This is a weird design choice, and hopefully, in the next version of the V line, this issue will be solved.
The EMC performance, which can play a significant role in an environment where a large number of electronic devices have to co-exist, is mediocre, and Chicony should improve its EMI filter on upcoming models.
Despite the excellent build quality, the overall performance is not that high, and to make matters worse, the competing offerings from other major brands (Corsair, Seasonic, EVGA, and Asus), cost less, also have a silent operation and are supported by equally extended warranties.
The recent US tariffs increased the price of this product and also affected its availability in the corresponding market. At the moment of the review, the V650 Gold was only available in the US through CM's official store at $129.99, while the Corsair RM650x and the Seasonic Focus GX-650, two of the most popular choices in this category, cost ten bucks less and are widely available.
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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.
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