Why the aweful colors on motherboards?

[Hexametaphosphate]

Don't get me wrong. I was really glad when motherboards when from green to other colors. Though I'm not a big fan of red, my MSI looks pretty nice in red. I know Soyo had some black and silver motherboards even.

My question is more about the pink, purple, yellow, periwinkle, etc, etc you see on A LOT of boards these days. I actually like the DFI boards with yellow and orange..... at least there is a theme, but many just seem like a crayon box puked all over the motherboard.

example

The motherboard above has a really nice black pcb, but then has orange and chartreuse dimm connectors (they do realize these colors don't go together, right?), baby blue heatsinks, and red SATA connectors. This isn't the worst I've seen by far, but couldn't they make a motherboard with a little cooler colors or at least ones that match a little better?


Again, I'm not a huge fan of red, but a black pcb with red and grey dimm slots would be nice. Or dark blue pcb with black and grey dimm slots maybe?

This is the closest I could find to my style, but even this has the blue that doesn't match. That and I'm not a big fan of red. Seems like the only motherboards I like the look of are the DFIs..... maybe you guys can point me to some you like.

I only make a big deal about this because I plan to make my own case from scratch and it would prominently show the motherboard.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

I agree 100%. Some of the new designs look terrible.

 

[TheoPetro]

not to offend anyone from asia BUT thats where there made. have you seen some of the stuff over there? the pachinco (sp?) games. ever watch anime? everything needs to be pastel and flashy. quite annoying if you ask me. i sure wouldnt mind getting my $.02 in on some of the color designs.

 

[phaxmohdem]

I think Black w/ Blue UVL traces would like insane with the right lighting/wiring/case window.

/me drools.

 

[Steve]

Gigabyte has had this color scheme around for a while. I just bought that board recently, I'm glad I won't have to look at it once I put the system together.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644
I agree 100%. Some of the new designs look terrible.

There's a reason for the ugly motherboards. It is to make them feel at home in the FUGLY "gamer" cases on the market. :laugh:

The early AOpen black motherboards were nice and plain, yet classy. Whatever happened to the Asus "Black Pearl" series?

Actually, I think the real original reason was to color code stuff so that retar^H^H^H intrepid system assemblers can get the wires hooked up properly. These days the thinking goes that if it looks LOUDER, then it will gain the notice of the unwashed masses.

The problem may not be in the actual color choices, but that so many clashing colors are present on the same board.

For myself, here's an ideal board: Black - you know it adds 2% performance just from color alone - with black EVERYTHING. I'm talking PCI slots and PCIe/AGP slot, and RAM slots. That's good for another 1% performance gain.

Perhaps a manufacturer can have color themes on a popular board line, as in having the SAME EXACT motherboard available in different colors, with the whole board, slots and all, being that same color. Imagine a black case with side window, inside a black motherboard. How about a RED case with side window, inside a red motherboard and red cold cathodes? Blue?

You know that you can spraypaint your motherboard, right?

 

[BlackPear1]

What Asus "Black Pearl" Series? I need one of those.

 

[Hexametaphosphate]

"For myself, here's an ideal board: Black - you know it adds 2% performance just from color alone - with black EVERYTHING. I'm talking PCI slots and PCIe/AGP slot, and RAM slots. That's good for another 1% performance gain."



agreed..... that would be my idea.... but black with midnight blue slots would be great. Hell... I would take a black motherboards with only one disgusting color. My main problem is pretty much the color coding. Since my brain works, I don't need to look in a manual and see that my ATA hard drive plugs into the bright green connector or that the light blue slots are my PCI slots. Maybe they could make an expert/enthusiast board featuring some decent colors.... and less of them.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: BlackPear1
What Asus "Black Pearl" Series? I need one of those.

I think the "Deluxe" replaced "Black Pearl." Those were feature filled boards with black PCB - Asus usually uses dull yellow.

 

[Texun]

I almost hate to say this but here goes.. color was a factor in selecting a board for my file box last month. I never thought I would have used color as a filter for my rig but the puke factor became a factor once I saw what was out there. My selection was more complicated than I thought at first.

1. Cheap (S754)
2. Color - Basic green, blue, black.
3. nForce chipset
4. Good reviews (not Newegg reviews)

I wanted something like the blue Shuttle AN35N that I pulled, but the closest I could find was the Gigabyte K8NS which has a couple of bright green slots I don't like. There is something about white lettering against the blue PCB made finding pins and connectors super easy.

 

[ahfunaki]

Hopefully in the future you can custom build your own board with whatever colors you want...

 

[Nirach]

Ehh...

I usually do my best to blag a dark colour mobo, the dust (Not that there is much, most of my cooling is passive bar two 120's) and it blends in with the internal colour of the case and takes less attention from the lighting and so on..

Other than that, I tend not to care. I'n my time I've had tan, green and black motehrboards.

 

[Continuity28]

Nothing wrong with good ole green. :heart: Tyan and Supermicro.

At least the colors of the motherboards don't actually affect anything. Cases are much worse off today, with the garish designs and focus on looks over functionality/cooling/quietness.

 

[2kfire]

I like the Platinum MSI boards i.e. Neo4 Platinum SLI. I agree with the OP that motherboards today do look uglier than they did a few years ago, like the already mentioned black pearl series and some company had a 'silver' board (all white). Oh well... Guess it doesn't affect me too much since I rarely see my motherboard

 

[Tweakin]

The new Sapphire ATi board looks nice, white with red plastic. This would look sweet inside a Antec P150 running a ATi X1800XT with red neon. JMHO

 

[GOREGRINDER]

i want a white/grey/silver board with black slots

or

a black board with white/grey/silver/slots and a blue led chipset fan