Hands On: Sama’s Platinum-Certified P1200 Power Supply
An international brand since 2003, Sama has spent the last couple year considering its US market expansion options: We’ve spent a similar period casually considering our power upgrade options. In what appears to be an amazingly coincidental alignment, the firm reached out to us almost immediately after we finally announced our search. Within weeks we were looking at its P1200.
Sold as model number XPH1200-AP and available in both black and white finish, the white version we received carries a part number P1200-WHPFF001-US (the WH and US parts of that ID become BK for black and EU for European versions). Regardless of the color or power cable included, the XPH1200-AP supports a wide input range from 100V to 240V at 50 to 60Hz, is able to output up to 100% of its rated current to 12V devices, and allows 5V and 3.3V devices to borrow a portion of that 100A current. The 15 to 8A input current level is intended to correspond to the amount of current required to reach the rated output at 100 to 240V, but the math doesn’t quite work, since Sama claims 0.5% better efficiency at 230V than at 115V input (100V at 15A would be 1500 input watts, while 240V at 8A would be 1760).
The certification numbers do check out, and 80 Plus organization even affirmed Sama’s 235% power excursion rating. This means that the P1200’s ability to survive a system’s overcurrent demands significantly exceeds Intel’s ATX 3.1 compliance standard of 200% output for 100µs.
Inside the box are the power supply, a white standard PC power cable (with US plug on US version), a 23” (58cm) 24-pin motherboard power lead, two 27.5” (70cm) EPS12V/ATX12V split (4+4 pin) cables, two 23.75” (60cm) 12VHPWR and three 23.5” (59.5cm) 6+2 pin PCIe leads, three 4-device SATA and one 4-device IDE cables, six Velcro-style cable ties and a very brief multi-language user guide. The four drive cables are 36.25” (92.5cm) each with the connectors spaced 6” (15cm) apart from the farthest end.
A 140x25cm fan that’s fitted to the P1200’s lid is marked as Global Fan’s RL4Z S1402512HH: A closer look at that number indicates that this refers to its frame style, as numerous other fans of different speeds, colors and blade styles also used it. Sama does its part to make its version quiet, ordering it with a 0.5A motor that spins less than 2000RPM, using rubber grommets to damp vibrations to the lid, and fitting it with a thermal controller that doesn’t even begin spinning the fan untl the power supply reaches 55 °C.
That the inside is filled with Rubycon electrolytic capacitors gives us some assurance that the P1200 might live to see its 10-year-warranty expire, as lesser caps have been the parts to take out past price-competitive units as they aged.
After studying the components for a moment, we jumped to Sama’s literature to verify its accuracy.
| Primary Side | |
| Bridge Rectifier(s) | 2x (HYGROUP) GBU1506L (15A/600V) |
| APFC MOSFETs | 3x (WAYON) WML28N60C4 (600V/23A @ 25℃ 0.16Ω) |
| APFC Boost Diode | 2x(Maplesemi) MSP06065G1 (650V/6A @ 150℃) |
| Bulk Cap(s) | 2x (RUBYCON) MXE Series 420V/470uF 105℃ |
| Main Switchers | 4x(Infineon) IPA60R125P6 (650V/30A @ 25℃ 0.125Ω) |
| APFC Controller | TI UCC28180 |
| Topology | Primary side: Active PFC + Full-Bridge & LLC converter Secondary side: Synchronous Rectification & DC- DC converters |
| Secondary Side | |
| +12V MOSFETs | 8x SR MOS 8x HYG020N04NR1P(40V/220A@ 25℃ 2.4mΩ） |
| 5V & 3.3V | DC-DC: (Infineon) BSC0906NS x6 (+5V, +3.3V each*3 PCS) DC-DC PWM IC : (ANPEC)APW7160A x2 (+5V, +3.3V each*1 PC) |
| Filtering Capacitors | Electrolytic:(RUBYCON) YXS/YXJ 105°C Series Electrolytic: (UNICON) KXM 105℃ Series Solid: (NCC)/PSG Series and (UNICON)/UPB Series |
| Supervisor IC | (INFSitronix) IN1S313I |
| Fan | (Globefan) RL4Z S142512/140mm 12V/0.5A 1900RPM/FDB bearing |
| 5VSB Circuit | |
| PWM IC + MOSFET | (INFSitronix) IN2P070C First Semiconductor/FIR4N70LG (700V/4A@25 °C 2.55Ω) |
By now you’ve probably noticed that the P1200 is square: That relatively small size could be a big consideration for builders of compact or retro gaming PCs, as it’s the first power supply we’ve seen in a long time to fit the classic PS/2 casing specification from the old days of PC/AT: Most high-capacity units are far lengthier than the legacy standard upon which ATX was based.
Today’s hands on will spot check the P1200’s operation against our two most-recent and two classic best power units.
| Model | Sama P1200 (XPH1200-AP) | XPG Fusion 1600 Titanium | Corsair AX860i | be quiet! Dark Power Pro 850 | Cooler Master XG 750 Plus Platinum |
| +12V Max (Amps) | 100A | 133.3A | 71.6A | 70A | 62.5A |
| 12VHPWR | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6+2 Pin PCIe | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| EPS12V | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 80Plus Cert. | Platinum | Titanium | Platinum | Platinum | Platinum |
| Weight | 1.75kg | 2.59kg | 1.90kg | 2.26kg | 1.73kg |
| Depth | 150mm | 210mm | 160mm | 194mm | 159mm |
| Warranty | 10-years | 12-years | 10-years | 10-years | 10-years |
We’ve clock and voltage locked our test system to the best of our abilities so that it will pull a high and continuously level load. Unfortunately, that fixed load is only 735W.
| System Configuration | |
| CPU | Intel Core i9-13900K: 24C/32T, 3.0-5.8 GHz, 36 MB L3 Cache, LGA 1700, Locked at 5.0P/4.0E GHz, 1.25V Core |
| CPU Cooler | Alphacool Core 1 LT Aurora, Eisbecher D5 150mm, NexXxoS UT60 X-Flow 240mm |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara, BIOS 12.13 (04/23/2024) |
| RAM | Crucial Pro OC Gaming Edition DDR5-6400 32GB Kit |
| Graphics | ASRock RX 7700 XT Phantom Gaming 12GB OC 2276 MHz GPU, 2599 MHz Boost, GDDR6-18000 |
| System Drive | Crucial T700 PCIe Gen5 2TB M.2 SSD |
| Test Condition | |
| CPU Load | Prime95 v30.8 build 16 Torture Test, Small FFTs |
| GPU Load | Furmark 2.7.0.0 GL Test, 1920×1080 |
Here’s how much power each unit required to produce that 735W of continuous output.
The P1200 drew less power than any of our other 80 Plus Platinum rated units, but couldn’t hold a candle to the Titanium unit’s stats. On the other hand, the Fusion 1600 Titanium costs 100% more than the P1200 while offering only 1/3 more output power.
Lacking the equipment to test anything but efficiency, we prefer to wait until a part has been in circulation a while to make any comments regarding longevity. We’re encouraged by the P1200’s 10-year warranty and its quality internal components, but its 80 Plus certifications is the only thing we have beyond an inkling that the unit would likely hold up to the stress patterns of our test bench.
| Sama P1200 (XPH1200-AP) | |
| Pros | Cons |
| 80 Plus Platinum certified ATX 3.1 compliant with 2x 12VHPWR Tested 91.4% efficient at 60% load Impressively inexpensive | Not yet broadly available in USA Little brand reputation in USA |
| The Verdict | |
| Cheap, powerful and effiecient enough to power our systems, cautious buyers will likely wait for a few more responses before purchasing. | |
