Taking More Of The M8 Apart
Opening the system up is just the first step before actually getting hardware into ASRock's M8. With the card bracket out of the way, we can more clearly see into the enclosure's top section.
The upper hard drive tray is attached to the top of the motherboard tray, and is easily viewed with the riser card removed.
This is what the graphics card bracket, riser card with bracket, and multi-drive tray look like once they’re taken out. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to that tray, too.
It splits into two pieces to support two 2.5” drives on the top, one 2.5” drive on the bottom, and one 2.5” drive under the stepped-down section of the top. The bottom is also compatible with a single 3.5” drive, though putting one there prevents the top from fitting. In the end, you can choose between four 2.5” drives or one 3.5” disk mounted here.
Another 2.5” drive bay resides under the power supply. This extends the maximum number of supported 2.5” drives to five, though you could also use the one 3.5" repository in the drive tray and one 2.5" storage device under the PSU.