Help configuring ASrock M8

[xLegendary]

I felt totally in love with this case, will look awesome in my living room as my badass Steam Box. Apparently they got it designed by BMWDesignworksUSA and ASRock.

Considering the power specifications and the case size, what would be the best config for this beauty?
I wanted to keep the power consumption and heat and lowest but still be able to game most of the games at high res.

 

[L1amrob]

Looks pretty awesome! Which version will you get? As they have 2 different, one with 450W and other with 600W PSU.

If you go with the 600W, slap a 970 card and the thing will play any games and runs cool and quiet!

 

[xLegendary]

Im trying to find out the price diference from the 2, but so far I only found 450W version available.
What would be a good config for the 450w?

 

[rtwjunkie]

Calling @cadaveca. If anyone knows this setup, it's him!

 

[L1amrob]

Newegg has this config on their M8:

Intel Core i5-4690 Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
OCZ ARC 100 ARC100-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III
MSI N750TI-2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card
ASRock M8 Mini ITX Gaming

I would definitely change that 750ti for a 270 or even 270X if you expect any decent gaming...

 

[xLegendary]

Someone was mentioning the 960 as possible option, but its going to be announced later in Jan. Would the 450W handle it?

 

[cadaveca]

I've got the 600W version, works fine with GTX 780 Ti. 960 might work OK w/450W, but maybe by the time you can get it, the 600W version should be out.

450W is Z87, 600W is Z97.

 

[xLegendary]

I've got the 600W version, works fine with GTX 780 Ti. 960 might work OK w/450W, but maybe by the time you can get it, the 600W version should be out.

450W is Z87, 600W is Z97.

Thats cool, where did you get yours? Someone told me that the 450w could handle the 970 as its lower than 200w.. but I think the PSU wont keep up, what do you guys think?

 

[rtwjunkie]

Thats cool, where did you get yours? Someone told me that the 450w could handle the 970 as its lower than 200w.. but I think the PSU wont keep up, what do you guys think?

He did the TPU review on that system!

It's pretty good.

 

[cadaveca]

Thats cool, where did you get yours? Someone told me that the 450w could handle the 970 as its lower than 200w.. but I think the PSU wont keep up, what do you guys think?

As rtwjunkie has said, I have one supplied to me by ASRock to do the review posted on the front page. A 400W PSU may not be enough, as there have been reports of 300-350W drawn by 970/980. I am unsure of the veracity of these reports, but I have to consider that there might be some truth to this and only recommend the newer 600W Z97 M8. If you are confident that the 970 will only draw 200W, then yes, the Z87-based M8 might work well for you, but I would suggest buying an original Haswell CPU rather than the 4790K.