As before, the M8 is a nice-looking enclosure. Its design is smartly thought out, which you might find unsurprising as BMW’s engineers had a hand in its creation. The case’s side panel is held on by magnets, rather than screws or latches. It has an octagon-shaped window in the center (chosen for its eight sides no doubt, playing into the product’s name). The chassis’ corners extend beyond the edge of the enclosure, each one featuring two crossbars 
that function as feet when the M8 is positioned vertically. They also serve double duty as handles for easy transport. One of these is painted red so you know which way is up.
Up front, you’ll find a slot-loading DVD drive, four USB 3.0 ports and an LCD readout inside the large OLED button. It’s a unique look that fits in with an edgy home theater.
The case itself is primarily composed of billet aluminum. The side panel, case feet extensions and inner shell are made of the stuff. The outer shell is black polycarbonate, while the structure inside is a combination of steel and plastic. The aforementioned aluminum feet are held together with metal crossbars, which are fastened with large socket head bolts.
None of that is changed from the original version, so let’s take a closer look at what’s new.
Most notably, the chipset is updated to the latest LGA 
1150-oriented enthusiast model. While the original M8 came bundled with an ASRock Z87-M8 ITX motherboard, this version includes the updated Z97-M8. The board’s layout doesn’t change at all, though. You still get two SO-DIMM memory slots rather than full-size DIMMs. An 802.11ac wireless networking card still comes installed, and the onboard Sound Blaster audio solution is there as well. Really, it looks like the motherboard’s only evolution is Z97 Express.
More significant is the power supply upgrade. In the first 
version of the M8, ASRock included a 450 W FSP Group 80 PLUS Bronze-rated unit. While it provided enough juice to drive a GeForce GTX 680, overclocking the graphics card and CPU pushed consumption close to the PSU’s ceiling. In the updated M8, ASRock employed a 600 W Enterprise Electronics supply with an 80 PLUS Gold certification. It arguably features better specs than the previous model, offering a single 50A +12V rail rather than the original’s 36A divided between two rails.
This provides more headroom for a better GPU at the cost of storage expansion. Rather than 22A on the +5V rail, the new model tops out at 15A. Maximum load on the 3.3+5V rails is also reduced from 120 W to 90 W. This PSU is technically modular; however, its cables all come installed, so the feature doesn’t provide much benefit.
Unfortunately, ASRock didn’t fix the most damning issue that Thomas discovered in his initial review, which is the orientation of the exhaust and intake fans. Both the top and bottom sport one intake and one exhaust, respectively. This still results in recirculated exhaust, with cold intake blowing right back out before passing over any hardware. To correct the problem, Thomas tore the case down, cut some cable sheathing and flipped some fans around, allowing cold air to enter on the bottom, pass over the hardware and exhaust out of the top of the case. The result was a monumental decrease in CPU temperature to the tune of 20 degrees C under load.
