Silicon carbide powders were synthesized by the coat-mix process, with phenolic resin and silicon powders as starting materials. The effects of synthetic conditions, including sintering temperature and the molar ratio of resin-derived carbon to silicon on the composition and the purity of the resultant powders were investigated. The results show that a higher sintering temperature and an appropriate molar ratio of resin-derived carbon to silicon are favorable for producing high purity silicon carbide powders. It is found that the silicon carbide content increases slightly with increasing the sintering temperature during the solid-solid reaction. The temperature gradient plays an important role on this trend. When the sintering temperature is raised up to 1500℃, the formation of silicon earbide is based on the liquid-solid reaction, and high purity (99.8wt%) silicon carbide powders can easily be obtained. It can also be found that the optimum molar ratio of resin-derived carbon to silicon is 1:1.