ASRock M8 Barebones Review: My Steam Box

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• IanCutress - Friday, January 3, 2014 - link

  How so? Please send me an email (ian AT anandtech DOT com) with suggestions and comments.

• Navvie - Friday, January 3, 2014 - link

  BMW designed this? Clearly not the same guys who design their cars.... if their cars were this fugly, nobody would by them, ever.
  
  Also some of the sentence structures in this article are hard to read...
  eg. "ASRock now come to the market with the M8 barebones based on a BMW design for the Z87 platform, at half the width of the Bitfenix Prodigy and a high build quality."
  
  Makes me think the design for the case is based on BMW's design for the Z87. Some far off successor to their Z3 and Z4 cars.
  
  "ASRock now come to the market with the M8, a barebones for their Z87 platform, designed by BMW." Would be better, but still not right.

• CknSalad - Friday, January 3, 2014 - link

  It's good to see the SFF market finally gaining much needed steam with intriguing products such as this one. That said, I honestly prefer small shoebox-sized cases like the sg05 or the small tower cases like the crowd-funded Ncase M1, which I actually currently own :D.
  
  I'm okay with mid-tower and full tower cases as there will always be a want/need for an enthusiast market, but the DIY desktop market really needs to start making a lot more M-Atx cases that are around the size of the Silverstone SG10 or TJ08-E. If more cases like the Asrock M8 come up, I'm sure that the desktop market will garner more interest from the Average Joe consumer.

• ImSpartacus - Friday, January 3, 2014 - link

  "The mini-ITX motherboard designed specifically for the chassis forgoes any significant power delivery and heatsink design, which is perhaps an oversight – for this build I went for a an i7 CPU but a low power 'T' model SKU so as not to overload or burn out the power delivery. ASRock state that the fans they supply below the motherboard help with the VRM cooling and thus nothing should stop a user placing an i7-4770K into the system, but overclocking longevity might be limited. I decided to apply some brain and use common sense for our test build here."
  
  This paragraph feels a little un-Anandtech.
  
  I'm used to reasoned arguments supported by buckets of objective data. This paragraph feels further from that and closer to FUD territory.
  
  Granted, I have no reason to agree or disagree with the point raised in that paragraph, but that's really the problem. For me, an Anandtech article educates its audience and let's the audience do most of the conclusion-determining.

• kyuu - Saturday, January 4, 2014 - link

  Can't say I agree. This is a tech blog, not a science journal. The writers' personal opinions and foibles come into play all the time, and that's fine.

• Death666Angel - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link

  So he should have pushed the platform until it burns out to prove or disprove what they said? What exactly is the FUD part for you? Seems like he gave us the AsRock PR line and his assessment of it. Going much further would increase the cost and risk by quite a lot, something he probably thought was not needed, and I have to agree.

• ol1bit - Friday, January 3, 2014 - link

  Seems pricey. I built a media/steam PC with Window 7 for much cheaper than that. Runs everything I want it to, plus is stylish. an i3, 4GB, Nivida 650.
  
  Case isn't made anymore, but can be seen here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CQBISA/ref=oh...

• Jonpet - Saturday, January 4, 2014 - link

  What`s with that presentation? Please place common object for size reference in at least one photo!Thanks.

• CalaverasGrande - Saturday, January 4, 2014 - link

  at that BOM it is almost getting into New Mac Pro price range.
  Though the comparable Mac would have less storage, but a better CPU and GPU (well...debatable).
  It certainly would have faster ram and external connectivity.

• Death666Angel - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link

  How is 50% cheaper getting into Mac Pro price range?