Asklemmy

im not against leds, but I hate rainbow barf mode. paert of the things I enjoy is uniqueness of builds, via small or big customizations, and adressable rgb helps, but too many people keep it at default which causes too many fucking builds to look the same.

I've been a PC gamer for 32 years now. I do enjoy having a clear side panel. I've had one for 22 years. That way you can show off whatever you have inside. I don't use RGB or any kind of lighting. I just think clear electronics are cool, you can see how they are made.

I think it’s pretty normal for people to want their high end thing to look high end, or whatever high end looks like to them. My PC case is basically a black rectangle with a single pane of glass on one side. It has some rainbow vomit lighting inside that isn’t all customizable with Linux, but my razer mouse mat, mouse, and keyboard all glow a lovely purple, just one static color. My desk, peripherals and case all match in black, so really any color I choose to run with makes for an easy vibe change.

I think maybe a half a dozen people have even seen my pc setup, and I don’t really take visitors back there, so whatever cool looks my setup has are just for me, and I enjoy it.

That said, there is a such thing as it being too busy, too gaudy, etc, so I totally get what you’re saying. My shit is lit up but I still feel like it’s fairly subdued.

I think it looks kinda cool, but it's also what everything else is. So the cool factor is a tad diminished.

I'll grab whichever option is cheapest for the specs I need to hit.

The only RGB I run is for my keyboard and only because I sit in a dark room and everything is black, so it can be difficult to see where the keyboard is. Back when I ran a regular mouse I also had an RGB mouse for the same reason, but carpal tunnel forced a trackball so now the mouse never moves and it no longer needs RGB.

My gaming computer is in an old 4 unit rack mount server case. I think there is some sort of RGB nonsense on the motherboard, but you can't see it once the computer is racked.

Fuck RGB shit.

My gaming pc lives in a soundproof cupboard 5m away without a case because quietness is more important to me than any visual element, so any RGB thing gets avoided, or turned off.

I can appreciate a very colour coordinated and well put together "gaming" computer in a purely aesthetic sense. Some are genuinely pretty and I get that some folk take a lot of pleasure out of making something that looks beautiful and best of luck to them. But I'm not one of them.

RGB that you can dim/disable beats a blaring bright red or blue LED you can’t, other than that I could leave gamer design behind

And I’m happy that backlit keyboards are widespread

Well once you add LEDs it increases the FPS 30% so yeah.

I think there's a fine line to be walked

Personally the only lights on my PC itself are the Ethernet ports on the back, and one little blue power indicator on the front

And since I built it in an HTPC case and stuffed it into my entertainment center, you kind of need to be looking at it from just the right angle to even see those. The case itself is a pretty unassuming black rectangle that looks pretty much like any other piece of AV equipment you might expect to see under a TV. About the size of a normal AV receiver, with a disc drive, a power and reset button, 2 USB ports, and a headphone and microphone jack.

My keyboard is a Keychron Q6 max with side-printed shine-through key caps, and my mouse is a Gameball Thumb (I like trackballs, and it's nice since I'm gaming on the couch so not much convenient flat space to move a mouse around) which has single ring of LEDs around the trackball and a small indicator LED to show the DPI settings on the mouse. Both of those turn off when they're idle, and when they're in use I have them set to a pretty simple spinning color mode.

My setup is in a finished basement and the lights are usually down so it's nice having them light up for the ease of seeing what I'm doing, and the simple color animations aren't too distracting.

Where my lighting excess does come in though is with the Philips hue lights I have synced up to my TV the overhead lights, a light strip behind my tv, and a light tube underneath it. Between that and the surround sound I think it's really immersive for movies and gaming. I think I've hit a good balance of it having some wow factor without being too distracting but opinions will of course vary on that.

I like minimalist setup, I avoid RGB.

I used to be against it, then my PC died in the early COVID days and the only (practical) way I could get a future-proofed replacement was to get a pre-built, and they all had RGB.

From there, though, it grew on me. Like so many other things I enjoy about working with computers, the learning process was just super enjoyable for me.

I read about different standards (RGB vs aRGB, 3 pins vs 4 pins, this module or that one, this software vs that), tried a few things, and got it looking like I wanted. Now I'm using OpenRGB to make my own patterns that match the room or the weather or whatever wallpaper I've got. Turning understanding into control and self-expression just feels good man.

My take, I was a gamer when I was young, when a 386 was gaming for me and till today when a 4080 is gaming for me, but I prefer normal looking shit without RGB. My 4080 colours allow me to set it to one shade of blue that I like, but I’ll be happy with a closed unit without any colour as well. What I would prefer, over colours, is free time to actually game :/

I suppose it's down to each individual to decide whether they're more interested in gaming or the looks. For instance, one can be a diehard automobile fan without being super into spoilers, wraps, loud AF mufflers, underlights, etc., right? 😅😶

Even as a nongamer I appreciate the stylistic aspects of gaming computers, but tbh if I were going to buy one I'd probably put the money into better specs and a plain case.

I hate those lights so much. I only want one light on my entire computer it should be right next to the on button to let me know it's on. That's it. I had that. It was wonderful. Then when I upgraded my graphics card it came with a light and now the thing glows green and I hate it. And don't get me started on the stupid Mouse.

I don't care much about my case and the internals but you can pry my flowing; gradient; pink, purple, and blue-lit peripherals, with gold ripples after a key or mouse click, from my dead hands. It's the little things that make me not want to eject out of my chair when dealing with work shit. I feel like a golden bi wizard when I'm at my desk

No. I turn off the flashy LED shit.

I was into it when I was a teenager, then got over it quickly. This was before RGB programmable lighting was even available, you had to buy your own individual LEDs that didn't change color.

Also this was the era where CGI anime girls and/or robofrogs were plastered on the GPU and cases had giant useless hunks of plastic to make it look like constipated Transformer so... in all honesty it's probably gotten better.

I got a plain black case without a window. I used to have Razer KB+Mouse but after a deathadder and viper died I'm trying a logitech mouse, the matched RGB was nice at first but I lost interest in it.

I like a very small amount of RGB.

I didn't always, I wanted full no color, but the ONLY GPU I could find had just a smidge of RGB in the logo (MSI something 5060 ti) and I like it as a highlight.

i hate that most of it is half-assed unless you spend twice as much to make it look good.

the current black paint + edgelord logo + generic phrase about gaming + half-brighness rainbow LEDs on 40% of your components in every computer just gets old. if one actually spends a decent amount of money i think it can look good, tho.

Now admittedly I'm just a gamer, not a Gamer^TM^, but I personally don't have any interest in the different designs and such; do they look cool sometimes? Sure, but I spend very little time looking at my PC so it's entertaining for the first two hours, and then it's just a chassis. Also I really don't like those annoying LED lights and have to switch them off; I sleep in the same room as my PC and I don't want the lights on at night (I never switch off my PC cause like seriously, who does that?)

Would it serve a streamer more than it would the average person however? Most likely; fans will enjoy glancing at it from time to time, and it'll help add some interest to the average person just flicking through different gamer streams.

I'm just running a stock Framework 13 currently. I do have several older desktops that I plan to get running again at some point. I might consider a new build, but it seems like a waste these days. No RGB for me. The only light I don't mind seeing at night is a dim red. Everything else is obnoxious.

Why is almost everyone in this thread just talking about rgb? The OP directly says that this isn't about rgb

I hate the gamer aesthetic, and I won't buy a product that adheres to it (unless its an internal component for my PC because i have an opaque case anyway). Rgb lighting can be nice in moderation, as long as it is truly customisable.

Flame decal 🔥🔥🔥 I thought it was cool 10 years ago, Now my actual setup is black and blue light

I'll admit to liking the look of some gaming PCs, with a custom loop with clear tubing, colored coolant, coordinated lights; it hits the same way a well done build in Satisfactory does.

I'm not really interested in gaming peripherals like a big chunky mouse with a bunch of angled plates on it trying to look like Gigatron's jock strap. Some RGB can be kind of cool, I kinda wish I could do more useful stuff with it, like I always throught it would be cool to have RGB lighting that varied from blue to red with component temperature or something. I'm not the biggest fan of just unicorn vomit for the sake of unicorn vomit.

I think a lot of these designs probably appeal to the early teen demographic who are begging their parents for their first gaming computer. My tower has one glass side because I like being able to see my components, but I didnt find any RGB necessary. Some of the colorful see through cases are quite pretty when arranged. I don't understand why mice have to look like bionicles though.

Gamer here, I do like my setup RGB matching the same color (Red)

But only because something has RGB does not mean I'll buy it. RGB ≠ Quality

I like it :)

My PC is RGB because it was cheaper that way. If I had the budget for what I really wanted, my PC would be made of translucent plastic; probably orange or purple.

RGB isn’t something I actively seek, but most thing come with it regardless. I have my gaming PC under my desk on the left side. The case has a glass panel and the light bounces off the TV cabinet next to it. I use Open RGB to set my LEDs to teal and purple inside the case and my Razor mouse. I have a voyager split keyboard that can self-set its RGB without any external app. Long winded way of saying I do customise it so it isn’t too garish, but I only care about backlighting on my keyboard (I still don’t really have home row down)

I bought a RGB mouse a few months ago, tried it out for a few hours, got annoyed by the bright lights at night and turned off the lights.

For some reason, the Roccat software messed up and now it flashes green when clicking the middle mouse button (I couldn't even find an option in the software to make it do that), but that's kinda cool, so I kept it.

My computer is a sleeper build in an old server steel case. No RGB anywhere, and as a bonus, I can even sit on it, if I want. :D