ASRock M8 Mini-ITX Barebones Gaming PC Review

[squirrelboy]

nice article. however, there is one thing that bothers me. dimensions in inches, weight in pounds, but fan dimensions in milimeters. this is kind of difficult to read for people who arent from Burma, Liberia or the US. http://i.imgur.com/jM1OYyK.jpg

 

[thespaceduck]

Talk about redundant...

Yes, you are repeating yourself far too much.

It's probably obvious to most people that those nine pages of tests were primarily motherboard validation.

Or is it a power supply review?

After you took the cheap opportunity to ridicule my comment after I did it for myself (my browser played some tricks on me), would you be so kind to tell me the connection between motherboard validation and performance tests? Since it is obvious to most but not me apparently.
Thank you.

 

[ingtar33]

pretty looking case... sorta crappy though for a "performance" computer system. I'd rather get any one of the mini itx boxes out there that will take a full sized gpu and just leave this one be. they'll all vent better (even the 120 elite works better then that) and cost less.

 

[Crashman]

Talk about redundant...

Yes, you are repeating yourself far too much.

It's probably obvious to most people that those nine pages of tests were primarily motherboard validation.

Or is it a power supply review?

After you took the cheap opportunity to ridicule my comment after I did it for myself (my browser played some tricks on me), would you be so kind to tell me the connection between motherboard validation and performance tests? Since it is obvious to most but not me apparently.
Thank you.

The M8 includes a motherboard that, like any other motherboard, could have had performance issues. It might have crashed. It might have had signaling issues over the riser card, which is a motherboard and case combined issue. The barebones PC got tested as a system because the function of all features had to be verified.

nice article. however, there is one thing that bothers me. dimensions in inches, weight in pounds, but fan dimensions in milimeters. this is kind of difficult to read for people who arent from Burma, Liberia or the US.

I know a few US readers who would take exception too. The problem in the US is that fans are now specified in international measurements, but people in the US ordinarily use inches/pounds/ounces when not restricted to international part designations such as fans.

Have you ever wondered how we ended up with 92mm fans? Why not 90 or 100? Well, it's because 92mm is a "generic" international spec for the frame of a old US-based fan design that used 3.25" hole spacing. The conversion doesn't work because the international spec is for the outside of the frame, but the original spec is for the hole spacing.

 

[Chris Bailey]

My big questions is can I Hackntoish it?

 

[Kevin Morrison]

I must be to old school to get this, exactly what type of game can you really expect to play with this thing, Super Mario 3D and maybe some children's games?

 

[cleeve]

I must be to old school to get this, exactly what type of game can you really expect to play with this thing, Super Mario 3D and maybe some children's games?

It has a GeForce GTX 760 and Haswell Core i7. I can't imagine a hardcore PC game that you *couldn't* play on it.

 

[Crashman]

I must be to old school to get this, exactly what type of game can you really expect to play with this thing, Super Mario 3D and maybe some children's games?

It has a GeForce GTX 760 and Haswell Core i7. I can't imagine a hardcore PC game that you *couldn't* play on it.

I think ASRock is going to have a big problem if people keep assuming it's just a bare case or that it's restricted to integrated graphics

 

[jebo_4jc]

I'm so dumbfounded that ASRock et al clearly spent a lot of time and money on designing a mostly well-built case, with all the design ideas being pretty smart. But the thermal performance absolutely kills this case for anybody that's at all concerned about noise.

The fact that a simple swap of fan direction lowered temps by 20c indicates they put absolutely no thought into thermal performance. It's absurd.

I started this article thinking I was going to buy one, but now that I've seen what a poor performer it is, and literally the ONLY reason to buy this is for the looks, I will be spending my money elsewhere. Thanks to the author for saving me $550.

 

[oj88]

With 4.9"(124mm) width, ASRock (or DesignworksUSA) should replace those self-contradictory double 70mm fans with single 120mm fans for better thermal and acoustic performance. If 4.9" is too tight, make it 5".

 

[Crashman]

With 4.9"(124mm) width, ASRock (or DesignworksUSA) should replace those self-contradictory double 70mm fans with single 120mm fans for better thermal and acoustic performance. If 4.9" is too tight, make it 5".

But you can't really use total width to figure out max fan size since the side-panels are contoured. The vents are big enough for 80mm fans, but they're just not designed to hold 80mm fans, and 80x25mm flow more air at lower noise than the stock 70x10mm. I'm thinking they could have gotten there at a little over 2000 RPM instead of the 4000 RPM as-delivered, and used the fan controller to get idle or low-load noise below 24db.

 

[oj88]

Crashman,
Thank you for pointing out that those 70mm fans are only 10mm thick. Again, if I were the designer, I would have redesigned the fan panels to fit at least 100mm fans, without expanding the 4.9" width. A 100mm fan would have double airflow than that of a 70mm fan.

 

[logainofhades]

I agree on the thermal performance. Hopefully they will take some of the feedback of this review and make some changes. I am actually interested in this for a possible future ITX build.

 

[Onus]

With thermal improvements and a drastically lowered price, v2.0 of this case could be really sweet.

 

[Crashman]

With thermal improvements and a drastically lowered price, v2.0 of this case could be really sweet.

We looked up the price of the other components and it brings the case itself to $220 by subtraction.

ASRock has a temporary $20 discount that would make the case $200, unless you apply that discount to its motherboard 😛

 

[Onus]

For those not buying strictly on looks (one must admit that Apple does an awful lot of business), it looks like they need to knock $125-$150 off the price. Otherwise, really the only thing it has going for it is the riser card allowing use of a full-sized graphics card.

 

[Crashman]

For those not buying strictly on looks (one must admit that Apple does an awful lot of business), it looks like they need to knock $125-$150 off the price. Otherwise, really the only thing it has going for it is the riser card allowing use of a full-sized graphics card.

A close examination shows that it's an expensive case to manufacture, and that it's manufactured well. If ASRock is having a third-party supply it, that puts ASRock in the difficult position of not being able to sell the case itself for less than $100 and stay "in the black". I estimate the minimum possible web price for the entire configuration would be around $440, and if they can't sell it for that they just can't sell it.

 

[Onus]

Hmmm, pushing it, but if they get all the thermal issues fixed, that may be worth it. Hard to say though, the only thing it offers over my latest mini-ITX build is I'm limited to a HD7750. That is a big deal to a hardcore gamer, but not to the masses.

 

[masmotors]

too expensive i say if it was 250.00$ it would make sense and they would sell out or at least 329.99 but 550.00$ is too much and we can build our own with cpu in it for that and ram

 

[Crashman]

too expensive i say if it was 250.00$ it would make sense and they would sell out or at least 329.99 but 550.00$ is too much and we can build our own with cpu in it for that and ram

While I agree with your sentiment, I can't agree with your math. The optical drive, power supply and motherboard add up to around $329.99.

And then you'd need a case

ASRock could chop $90 off this thing instantly by selling it without an optical drive. I know a lot of you guys hate these things, and if you really do hate them you shouldn't be forced to pay for them.

Since I don't hate optical drives, I would have been happy with any price under $450.

 

[Onus]

I wonder if Lian Li had a hand in the design; excellent materials, fit, and finish (worth a premium price to many), but poor thermal performance.

 

[Crashman]

I wonder if Lian Li had a hand in the design; excellent materials, fit, and finish (worth a premium price to many), but poor thermal performance.

Everything Lian-Li makes can be produced with a metal brake and a water jet. Some parts of this case are pressed and other parts are cast, that's probably beyond Lian-Li's capacity.

 

[Deemo13]

Tom's

On page 9, for the $1350 SBM computer, it should read i5-4670K instead of i7-4670K correct?

 

[Crashman]

Tom's

On page 9, for the $1350 SBM computer, it should read i5-4670K instead of i7-4670K correct?

Correct, thanks!

 

[eecer]

Hay I do plan on purchasing this but I am unable to find the Xigmatek Janus. I've read great reviews but I can't find it for sale anywhere. Is this no longer in production or has it not been released yet?

If it's no longer an option, or wont be for quite some time, are there any other CPU coolers that are good for a case like this?