# ASRock M8K



## kier (Nov 5, 2014)

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!!!


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## kier (Nov 6, 2014)

Update!!!













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!!!


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## berniemansell (Nov 8, 2014)

Brilliant as always Kier


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## t_ski (Nov 8, 2014)

kier said:


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


If you could somehow make the bottom section look exactly like the top section, I think it would work.  However, the only way I can think of that coming about is to have the housing from a second unit.  That vent pattern is pretty intricate.


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## kier (Nov 11, 2014)

t_ski said:


> If you could somehow make the bottom section look exactly like the top section, I think it would work.  However, the only way I can think of that coming about is to have the housing from a second unit.  That vent pattern is pretty intricate.



But it looks like a Chinese restaurant


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## kier (Nov 26, 2014)

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.


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## kier (Dec 29, 2014)

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!!!


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## kier (Dec 31, 2014)

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!!!


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## kier (Jan 1, 2015)

Final Update!!!













Final pictures are there.

Enjoy my friends!!!

























































































Big thanks goes to:

ASRock

EKWB

Corsair


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