The M8’s installation kit includes four medium-length and two extra-short SATA cables, a power cord, screws, a hex key for the exterior handles, a card support bracket, keys for the side-panel lock, rubber side-panel feet for horizontal installations, and an ASRock-branded ballpoint pen.

ASRock doesn’t support screw-on CPU coolers in the M8, but we do. Installation difficulties are caused by a motherboard tray that lacks access hole (which we imagine the BMW team found too ugly) and installed cables that make the motherboard tedious to remove.

Maximum supported heat sink height is approximately 80 mm, minus whatever space above that the cooler needs to function properly. Most of the coolers in this lab are either too big to fit or too small to facilitate any meaningful overclocking. The Xigmatek Janus fits with 20 mm to spare, so I upgraded its 120 x 15 mm fan to Noctua’s thicker NF-120 120 x 25 mm fan. We even arranged an upcoming cooling round-up to explore our other low-profile options.

Because the lower drive bay is tough to access, I decided to mount an SSD on the upper tray. I also chose the most unusual position of that tray to show how the fourth drive fits. Unfortunately, support tabs for the drive mount above it block access to its screws. Thanks again, BMW?

A double-slot graphics card can be secured using screws, a flip-down bracket, or both. The bracket is shown unlatched.

The double-slot graphics card has plenty of breathing room, even with the drive cage installed.
- ASRock's M8: Build Your Own Compact Gaming Box
- ASRock M8 Mini-ITX Gaming PC
- Inside ASRock's M8 Chassis
- Taking More Of The M8 Apart
- Hardware Installation
- Overcoming A Significant Thermal Issue
- ASRock M8 Software
- Z87-M8 Motherboard Firmware
- Benchmark And Overclocking Configurations
- Results: Synthetic Benchmarks
- Results: Battlefield 3
- Results: Far Cry 3
- Results: F1 2012
- Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: File Compression
- Power Consumption And Heat
- Average Performance And Efficiency
- Is ASRock's M8 A High-End Mini-ITX Winner?
Completely gut the system, since the bottom panel is secured from the inside with four screws.
And then slice up the wire sleeves, since the guide on each fan frame was farther apart.
CPU load temperature immediately dropped by roughly 20°, but at the expense of messier cabling.
Awesome way of thinking Thomas, that's why I love you guys. I am curious however to know if you emailed them to tell them about this solution. Since it made such a dramatic difference they should change the way those fans are positioned.
Does the added trace length or extra connection required to use a riser card impose any kind of penalty on graphics cards? Please test this, by using one on a typical motherboard just for some measurements.
Does the added trace length or extra connection required to use a riser card impose any kind of penalty on graphics cards? Please test this, by using one on a typical motherboard just for some measurements.
It's probably obvious to most people that those nine pages of tests were primarily motherboard validation.
Or is it a power supply review?
It's probably obvious to most people that those nine pages of tests were primarily motherboard validation.
Or is it a power supply review?
Not without oscilloscope shots of noise and ripple. I think this particular PSU has been reviewed though, perhaps when HardwareSecrets reviewed one of the Silverstone cases that uses it. I'm not sure; they may have only done the 300W version that way, but I thought I'd seen this one done somewhere too... Anyway, FSP is one of the better PSU OEMs, and I'd be inclined to trust this one.
I wouldn't expect ASRock to want to re-tool this, but a case manufacturer might readily do so. I really need to post some pics of "Hobo," a build I finished recently (except for the graphics card) using one of those InWin slim cases. I'm waiting for some R7 reviews before deciding what graphics card it gets, which is limited to a low-profile model.
Incidentally, that build uses an ASRock Z77E-ITX. I got it quite some time ago from HardwareSecrets (it was their review sample), without a warranty, but when it died suddenly (apparent VRM failure), ASRock replaced it for $50. I was happy about that.
The reason I would build such a small machine like this is for portability to take and game at friends houses so gaming results matter more than productivity.
In my perspective you lost.
P.S. It's shocking that you figured out a dramatic and easy solution to M8's cooling and noise problem and their engineers couldn't figure that on their own. I wonder if they're going to fix this so that I could wait on the fix, or just buy it now with the i5-4670K CPU and not have to worry so much about it overheating.
Thanks for this wonderful and thorough review!
It's probably obvious to most people that those nine pages of tests were primarily motherboard validation.
The reason I would build such a small machine like this is for portability to take and game at friends houses so gaming results matter more than productivity.
In my perspective you lost.
I don't understand this response at all, in particular since it seems to contradict itself.
If portability is the goal, this machine creamed Don's (to be fair, Don wasn't building for portability). I'd probably say the same even if it used an i3 with the stock cooler. A rig built to provide "show-off" settings is unlikely to be easy to carry around at all. Here is a small, easily portable machine that can play any game on enjoyable settings, and does quite well at a variety of tasks.