Color of PCB?

[zoog18]

Hello, this is more of a curiosity question than anything else, but I've noticed in reviews and discussions about components with PCB's (GPU's, Motherboards) that people always seem to be picky about the color of the PCB, does the color affect performance or something? Or is it just an aesthetic thing? (Example, everyone seems to favour matte black PCB's over other colors).

 

[Pinhedd]

Hello, this is more of a curiosity question than anything else, but I've noticed in reviews and discussions about components with PCB's (GPU's, Motherboards) that people always seem to be picky about the color of the PCB, does the color affect performance or something? Or is it just an aesthetic thing? (Example, everyone seems to favour matte black PCB's over other colors).

it does not affect performance at all, it's purely a matter of aesthetics.

EDIT: Red case lights improve your overclock though, while Blue lights make your PC run cooler

 

[Fliggle_Slaps]

Green case lights were also confirmed to make your PC more energy efficient.

 

[misfitkid86]

yeah it's just for show, look at the galaxy 780 hof edition for a really awesome pcb.

 

[zoog18]

Agreed, I know that orange case lights can also be a fire hazard.

 

[Gam3r01]

I can indeed confirm that blue cathodes, motherboards, and fans make my PC run cooler.

Jokes aside, its personal preference. They are for looks, and brand identification sometimes. (Sapphire used to use blue PCBs, ASUS AMD motherboards are brown with blue heatsinks (M5 series))

 

[Gunmetal_61]

In the age of the custom built, no one wants Beige cases or traditional green circuit boards. When customizing, sure, you may be able to paint a PC case over yourself to your liking, but you can't change the color of a motherboard; it's dangerous to spray paint thousands of electrical contacts.

It's just a style thing, as many people have said. There are stories of people who pay more for a Sabertooth or a Maximus Hero board over Asus's standard ones just because of the colors. Same thing applies when people choose brands (i.e. if I want a yellow board, I might want an MSI with their Lightning series boards). That's why green boards aren't used in anything but the cheapest models or laptops, but even the fancier laptops (which aren't designed to be opened up) are starting to use black boards.

On a side note, lately, Asus has been making their standard B85/H87/Z87 and H97/Z97 boards in brown PCBs with yellow/goldish accents. Totally fugly. It's like they're trying to make people buy their expensive boards over looks.

 

[zoog18]

Honestly, I never really thought that the PCB color increased performance, I was just curious, also most of Asus's mainstream series use black PCB's except for the Sabertooth Mark 2 and B85 Vanguard, if I recall correctly and the Mark 2 isn't very popular from what I can tell since most people go for the Mark 1 since it looks nicer and has a lot more features and a better build quality, and uses better components.