LF Mobo Recommendation - w/o all the Flashing Lights...

Crunchberry

Junior Member
Sep 3, 2012
2
0
61
So its been 4 years since I built my last gaming machine, and now it is time to upgrade. I have decided to go with an i7 8700k, but I cannot decide on a motherboard. What I would really like to find is a good quality motherboard without all the damn flashing lights. It seems that every motherboard I find that meets my wanted specs or my "accepted" brands lights up and flashes like some ecstasy fueled dance club. I could care less about making my computer look like a damn Christmas tree! I'm sure I can disable the lights so they dont show, but that's not the point. It seems they all put flashy lights on them to jack up the price and distract from seeing how crappy their motherboard actually is. I guess I'm getting old, because 10 years ago I would have been looking for flashy lights.

Specs I am looking for would be at least 2x M.2 2280 slots, ATX size, and at least 1x USB 3.1 Type-C connector. For now I plan to continue with my Nvidia GTX 970, but I plan to upgrade that when the new cards come out in a month or two. Traditionally I have always purchased ASUS motherboards, but I am not averse to branching out a bit. I had looked at the ASUS Tuf Z370-Pro Gaming, but even it has a bunch of f'n lights. The Gigabyte Z370 Auros Gaming 5 also seemed like a nice board, but again... snap, crackle, pop... flashy... f'n... lights...

Please help me see beyond the flashy lights...any recommendations would be appreciated.
 

Crunchberry

Junior Member
Sep 3, 2012
2
0
61
That seems like a nice board...I guess I just need to accept the lights and move on. Years ago ASRock were not the best boards, so Ive always steered clear of them. However, from what I can see now, they seem to be making a better product. Is that a fair assessment? How do they measure up in quality compared to others?
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,382
146
Their Taichi series is amazing across all platforms. There are many users here who one version or another of them.
 

severus

Senior member
Dec 30, 2007
563
4
81
Biostar always gets my vote. They don't really have the ridiculous features some of the other brands have.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,905
3,292
126
definitely not a gigy auros...

My G9 is basically Ibiza in a square box with all the LED's including the LED's on my RAM.

I +1 on a Taichi.
 

Ratman6161

Senior member
Mar 21, 2008
616
75
91
I don't like the flashing lights either. On my Asus prime x470 pro it has a setting in the bios to turn them off. Of course that's AMD board, but I'm guessing their Intel boards probably have the same setting.

But if you hate the flashing lights then maybe you also find the windows in the side silly like I do? My solution was to just get a case with no window...so I can't see the lights anyway :)
 

Indus

Lifer
May 11, 2002
13,510
9,393
136
I swore by gigabyte boards and still do. Never had one die on me.

But my most recent is an ASROCK one.

It's been good with 1 caveat.. the board kept crashing because the voltage default in bios for the southbridge was too low. It pissed me off galore till I figured that it was a bios setting. Once I corrected that the board has been rock stable.

The ASRock killer series is a true killer in sense of price vs performance if you aren't going to overclock super high.
 

VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
7,272
8,953
136
If you like the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus gaming 5...go for it. I'm pretty sure the lights can be turned off in BIOS
 

Charlie22911

Senior member
Mar 19, 2005
614
228
116
Light on every board I've dealt with can be disabled in bios or software (worst case). I also recomend the AsRock TaiChi boards, having owned an x399 TaiChi and x299 TaiChi XE.
 

severus

Senior member
Dec 30, 2007
563
4
81
How good are Biostar motherboards? I had one die on me the last time I had one.
I've not had one issue with my TZ68A+ and I am going to be using the X370GT5+ for my Ryzen build. I already have it in the new case actually. They're very stable and feature rich