Is red the new green?

[kchen]

Just out of curiosity, why is it that mainboards (and video cards) are increasingly produced with a red PCB as opposed to traditional green?

At first I thought it was to appeal to case modders by allowing them to differentiate their computers by showing off colorful parts in a transparent case. But if now _everything_ is red, doesn't that make it equally generic? I mean, a green board would draw more attention these days.

Then I thought, well, why red or green at all? Why not some other color? Is there any technical reason for why these colors were used, something to do with the manufacturing process? Does red dissipate heat faster or something?

It just seems kind of silly to change PCB colors in a standardized fashion. If it is more about aesthetics rather than technical issues, the mainboard makers should at least provide different colors. Right now it's sort of like saying, 2004 cars are all black, but the 2005s will be all silver!

 

[Mr5oh]

My motherboard is blue actually. Have some green PCIs, and even a bright red PCI card.

A friend of mine has yellow RAM chips.

Just sort of random, I guess.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Mr5oh]

Oh, and there is no technical reason why they do this.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Crashman]

Hmm, green...

A lot of really old boards took on the color of the epoxy mixture they used (some resins are tan rather than clear), I suppose they might have simply enhanced the tanish color by making it green so it was less transparent. Newer colors are just for show.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[etp777]

Aesthethics.

And yes, it's stupid to have something "different" that everyone has. But that's the case in everything.

Go look at customized riced out cars. where everyone's "custom" is the exact same thing.

Or Custom choppers. Where every one o fthem runs same motor, tranny, and body parts(with few exceptions, like the liquid cooled one using engine from a wrecked VTX1800).

There are exceptions of course, where people truly are original, but any thing like this, where it's for fashion, and moreover, where the industry, be it cars, bikes, or computers, has created a market of parts to do it yourself(but hence, all the same, as they're no longer true customs), ends up with tons of "custom gear" that all looks exactly like everyone else's.

And yes, I apologize for that confusing run on sentence. Haven't had my morning coffee yet.

 

[Cybercraig]

I like the red and black boards. Much easier for me to read the fine white print on the motherboard.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot