ASRock M8K

[kier]

Hello members and friends of our great mod community.

Here the beginning of my attempt to do some nice things to a great system: A beautiful ASRock Z97 M8. The challenge is to transform it into a barebone mod with water cooling.

When ASRock contacted me and asked me the question "do you see potential in modding this one" I couldn't say no off course. Then they did me an offer to actually do this, when I said I wanted to put this one under water

Big thanks goes out for this beautiful deal to Red Hung "ASRock HQ" and Peter "ASRock Benelux"

Also big thanks to Niko and Peter from EKWB

And big thanks goes to Harry from Corsair

It all started with the ASRock box that was delivered at work and was transported safely by me to the MbK modcave.

First unboxing on the dining table

And a great case emerged designed by BMW Group DesignworksUSA

The M8 is sold as a barebone system, which only includes a chassis, power supply, mini-ITX motherboard, fans and optical disk drive.

- Intel® Z97 Motherboard Inside
- Supports 5th, New 4th and 4th Gen Intel® Core Processors
- A-Command with G-sensor integrated
- Creative SoundCore 3D 7.1 CH HD Audio with Nichicon Fine Gold Audio Caps
- 2T2R WiFi 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0
- SFX 600W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
- XSplit 3 Months Premium License
- ASRock Cloud, ASRock Key Master


Nice specs:

And time to open the small beast Rear side is already great

The front and quickly installed a GTX780 TITAN... see if it fits

Perfect!!! And still space left

Beautiful semi-modular 600W power supply in it

Then it was time to disassemble everything

Good overview at the heart of the M8... The Z97-M8

Looks good!!!

It's possible to install a total of 5 SSDs, or 1x 3.5 "HDD and 4 Pcs 2.5".
In this one will come 4 SSDs

After a night of brainstorming I decided to go up. For this I've used aluminum tubes with acrylic tubes and made a bracket in the middle. And not to forget placed some custom sized acrylic plates.

Also used some Banchetto rubber feet.

And there it is!!!

To be continued!!!

[TLHarrell]

Interesting start.

[Airbozo]

Nice!

Love the looks of the case. Might have to see about getting a sample unit for some customer builds...

Keep up the good work!

[kier]

Interesting start.

Thanks!!!

Nice!

Love the looks of the case. Might have to see about getting a sample unit for some customer builds...

Keep up the good work!

I think you should... very nice system and so easy to install

[kier]

Update!!!

And big thanks goes to Harry from Corsair

First of all, a few nice shots of a new CPU block from EKWB: The EK-Supremacy EVO

A very nice block onto a not too big mobo looks like a full cover block, so saves money !!!

Looking for the right color regarding the bars: Titanium gray or glossy red

What do you guys think?

Remember there will be rigid tubing, with red liquid (no pastel this time) in it.

I was also trying some stuff with a custom cover for the section beneath and in this an aquatube....

But don't like this. So delete!!! Bottom remains open now, with all the WC stuff in sight.

I did drilled some holes in the aquatube to place red LEDs. What gives a pretty nice effect.

Finally I want the PSU turned the other way for future ideas

Original position:

Made a custom plate which is mounted onto the bracket for the optical drive.

Turned the PSU, made another bracket to secure the PSU.

More to come!!!

[Airbozo]

I like the contrast of the red and it matches the LEDs.

[kier]

Thanks but I will go for the grey I think lol

Update!!!

A new update with nice progress. First I made a cover of acrylic 5mm to keep the focus on the mobo.
And I used the M8 box for cable entry from the back for a nice effect

Placed some LEDs

And more LEDs

Then came great packages from EKWB and Corsair

Beautiful memory: the Corsair Vengeance (CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10)

A great block for my GTX780. De EK-FC780 GTX Ti

And a backplate

Once installed...

Placed and looks perfect

Received 4 new Corsair SSDs, placed and made some SATA power cables.

The Corsair Force Series™ LX 128GB SATA 3 6Gb/s

Everything fits like I want, so started with the loop.

Placed the reservoir again, but now with a drain port attached to it.

The radiator I'm going to use is a EK-CoolStream PE 240

With Corsair AF120-LED Quiet Edition red fans:

Placed like this

And a nice shot to finish this update.

[TheMainMan]

I think the grey bars was the right choice seeing the rest of the changes you've made, red would have been too overstated in my opinion. Love the shape of the whole project, looks kinda like some sort of heavy duty TIE-fighter.

[kier]

Thanks, grey it will be then.

Update!!!

It took a while, but here's a new update.
First special thanks goes to Corsair for sending a great game gear set

Among this a great keyboard. the Corsair Vengeance® K70 Anodized Black — Cherry MX Brown

Super nice keyboard

Swap the buttons is first thing to do

Looks pretty sexy

Also there was a great dual-sided Gaming Mouse Mat MM600

More about this set later!

We left off with connecting the rigid tubing. Connected the CPU with right angles going down.

Which comes out by the radiator and from here it goes to the GPU.

Going from right to left

And so comes out to the left from the GPU while the right goes to the pump.

On the right side also a link from the radiator to the inlet reservoir and created a fill port from the middle inlet reservoir. The lower outlet from the reservoir is going to the pump inlet.

Then it was time to fill it with my favorite red: Mayhems Pastel Red

Testing went well, so next: Small adjustment + final photo shoot.

Happy new year my modding friends!!!

[kier]

Update!!!

A small update in this old year before I post the final shoot update in the new year

The front was missing something so I have placed some acrylic pieces.
First played with the amount of the pieces, to see what is best.

3 layers connecting nicely against the aquatube.

Nice, but think 3 is to much.

After some sawing, filing, drilling, tapping screws, this is the result

And the build is finished !!! But first... still have two great products left from the Corsair game package:

The beautiful Raptor M45 Gaming Mouse

En last but not least, a perfect Corsair Raptor HS40 7.1 Gaming Headset

Again thank you so much Corsair for this great game gear

Back to the build .... After all stuff installed, it is ready for use, and ready for the final photo shoot

Till next year with the final photo shoot!!!