Phanteks AMP Series 650W Power Supply Review

The Phanteks AMP Series 650W offers strong performance, excellent build quality and silent operation. All the above are provided at a fair price, so this product follows keeps up with its direct competitors in this wattage category, namely the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold with similar capacity (GX-650) that uses the same platform and the Corsair RM650x.

The Phanteks Amps line consists of three models with their capacities ranging from 550W to 750W. All are fully modular and are certified by both 80 PLUS and Cybenetics, so besides the 80 PLUS Gold badge, the PH-P650G also has the ETA-A and LAMBDA-A+ efficiency and noise badges, respectively.

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Product Photos

All Phanteks AMP models use the new Focus Plus Gold platform, which is also used in the fresh Seasonic GX models. This platform is reliable and offers good performance, so we have high expectations from today's review unit, the PH-P650G.

Despite the super-compact dimensions, the have PH-P650G is equipped with two EPS and four PCIe connectors, so it will easily keep up with a potent system, as long as you don't try to power a pair of previous AMD GPUs with it (e.g., VEGA 56/64). If you don't need a second GPU, the PH-P650G is able to handle extremely power-hungry processors like AMD's Threadripper CPUs, which can draw more than 250W of power, and this is why the corresponding mainboards require a pair of EPS connectors. 

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Product Photos

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables and Connectors

There are plenty of connectors, including two EPS, four PCIe, twelve SATA (with two of them supporting the PWDIS feature) and three 4-pin Molex.

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Cable Photos

Component Analysis

We strongly encourage you to have a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

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Overall Photos

As we already mentioned, all AMP models are based on Seasonic's newest Focus Plus platform. The main PCB is compact but still has enough clearance between parts, to allow for proper airflow. The build quality is excellent, and all parts are carefully selected to offer the highest possible lifetime, without dramatically increasing the manufacturing cost. 

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Transient filter

The transient filter is complete since it includes all necessary parts, along with a discharge IC for lower power losses on X caps.

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Bridge rectifiers

Both bridge rectifiers are cooled down by a small heat sink. 

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APFC converter

Right in front of the APFC converter's parts, we find the NTC thermistor with model number WMF21-5D-15M and its bypass relay. This specific thermistor has 5 Ohms resistance (+-20%) at 25 degrees Celsius, meaning that with this specific operating temperature, the inrush current at 230V can go up to 64.86 Amps (230V x 1.41 x 5 Ohm). Given the high 20% resistance tolerance, the inrush current with 230V can be as high as 81.075A, given that the thermistor's temperature doesn't go higher than 25 degrees Celsius. 

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Main FETs and primary transformer

The four primary FETs are arranged in a full-bridge topology. A resonant converter is also used, to restrict energy losses. 

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12V FETs and VRMs

All FETs that handle the +12V rail are installed on the solder side of the main PCB. The two heat sinks right above them, on the top side of the PCB, help in cooling down those FETs. Finally, the minor rails are handled by a couple of DC-DC converters. 

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Filtering caps

The filtering caps are of good quality since most of them belong to mid and higher-end lines. Besides electrolytic caps, many polymers are also used.

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5VSB Circuit

The 5VSB circuit uses an Excelliance standby PWM controller and the rectifier, on its secondary side, is an SBR. 

The supervisor IC is a Weltrend WT7527V.

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Modular board front

There is space for much more polymer caps on the modular PCB, but this would increase the cost without reason since the ripple suppression is already quite good. 

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Soldering quality

The main PCB has good soldering quality. 

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Cooling fan

The cooling fan is by Hong Hua, and it uses a fluid dynamic bearing. This is a good fan, which will live for quite long if you don't expose it to harsh conditions (40 degrees Celsius) for prolonged periods.

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