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If you look back far enough, you can see where the trend began. The infamous "beige PC." Enthusiasts wanted to not only build their own PC, but for it to be cus

If you look back far enough, you can see where the trend began. The infamous "beige PC." Enthusiasts wanted to not only build their own PC, but for it to be custom, and to look good. Cases could be bought with silver, black, white, even color! And with enthusiasts working hard to make the inside of their case look neat, tidy and visually appealing, windows became popular. As RGB LEDs became inexpensive and easily programmable, it became a way for users to customize their hand-built PC further. Of course OEMs want to capitalize on this. I just don't quite understand why it's a complaint, though. Is it difficult to buy a case without a window, and set LEDs to some kind of steady state dark color? Or simply replace the stock cooler with the one that looks the way you want? The whole point is being able to pick and choose so it fits what you want. Is it really hard to buy hardware that doesn't light up? I went to Newegg.com and plenty of the CPU coolers there have no lights. And you were able to disable the motherboard lights. Here are lots of black boxes to pick from: https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007583%20600006506 https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007583%20600006506

coldpie 6y ago
I agree with you it's minor, and I admit I'm mostly just ranting (although lights on external peripherals like mice are inexcusable). But, waste annoys me. My CPU fan now has a microcontroller with USB logic on it, a bunch of LEDs and plastic light tunnels, and the requisite jacks to hook cables into, and came with two different cables I could use to control this light I don't want. What do I do with all this, just throw it away? That's a bunch of plastic and metal and manufacturing and shipping and packaging that neither I nor the planet need right now, and it's all going straight into the trash in a few years. It could have just been a dumb DC brush motor.
- leetcrew 6y ago
  is it really so bad to have marginally more material on a hunk of metal you're going to throw away anyway? if you really cared, you could have bought a cpu that didn't come with a fan and a noctua cooler. they'll mail you a new socket adapter for free whenever you upgrade, so you can keep it running indefinitely.
  - jabroni_salad 6y ago
    Not only that, but you wouldn't be sacrificing anything. The noctua coolers have consistently been a top scorer for both performance and noise for years. Plus, they recently have started making black fans if you aren't a fan of the brown.
- neogodless 6y ago
  Right. As a builder, the point is to be able to choose what you include and what you don't. I'm sort of a "semi-lazy" builder who is happy to have motherboard RGB, Wraith coolers, and Sapphire lit up on my video card, because I like the lights, but wouldn't put in the effort to get them if they weren't included. It seems to be getting harder to get motherboards without anything included, though I haven't specifically tried to shop for that. There still seems to be enough variety in cases, coolers, RAM and video cards to avoid RGB included in those components. Prior to Wraith coolers, there were always those builders who would get a crappy included cooler with their CPU and throw it in the trash to buy a proper quiet, efficient CPU cooler. Here I'm glad they are including a cooler that meets my needs, and I'm not having to shop around for a second purchase.

coldpie 6y ago

I agree with you it's minor, and I admit I'm mostly just ranting (although lights on external peripherals like mice are inexcusable). But, waste annoys me. My CPU fan now has a microcontroller with USB logic on it, a bunch of LEDs and plastic light tunnels, and the requisite jacks to hook cables into, and came with two different cables I could use to control this light I don't want. What do I do with all this, just throw it away? That's a bunch of plastic and metal and manufacturing and shipping and packaging that neither I nor the planet need right now, and it's all going straight into the trash in a few years. It could have just been a dumb DC brush motor.

leetcrew 6y ago
is it really so bad to have marginally more material on a hunk of metal you're going to throw away anyway? if you really cared, you could have bought a cpu that didn't come with a fan and a noctua cooler. they'll mail you a new socket adapter for free whenever you upgrade, so you can keep it running indefinitely.
- jabroni_salad 6y ago
  Not only that, but you wouldn't be sacrificing anything. The noctua coolers have consistently been a top scorer for both performance and noise for years. Plus, they recently have started making black fans if you aren't a fan of the brown.
neogodless 6y ago
Right. As a builder, the point is to be able to choose what you include and what you don't. I'm sort of a "semi-lazy" builder who is happy to have motherboard RGB, Wraith coolers, and Sapphire lit up on my video card, because I like the lights, but wouldn't put in the effort to get them if they weren't included. It seems to be getting harder to get motherboards without anything included, though I haven't specifically tried to shop for that. There still seems to be enough variety in cases, coolers, RAM and video cards to avoid RGB included in those components. Prior to Wraith coolers, there were always those builders who would get a crappy included cooler with their CPU and throw it in the trash to buy a proper quiet, efficient CPU cooler. Here I'm glad they are including a cooler that meets my needs, and I'm not having to shop around for a second purchase.