Computer science and technology have been plagued by quite strange urban myths and legends that we can hardly trace back to their origins. One of the most intriguing legends involves a very subtle change in motherboards, specifically the color. In particular, the first black PCBs were said to be of better quality, but is this true?
Many people have known motherboards with green or yellow PCBs, and there were even some with blue ones. Nowadays, we have seen all kinds of colors, so nothing surprises us anymore. Black and white are common, but there are also gray, red, or combinations of colors.
Are black motherboards of good quality?
To answer that, we need to go back to the era of processors with a maximum of two cores and graphics cards with compact heatsinks. So, there wasn’t much fantasy in the colors of PCBs. They were usually green and yellow, but Gigabyte used blue. Everything changed with ASUS.
You might not know this, but ASUS was the first motherboard manufacturer to create black PCBs. Specifically, this color was dedicated to the company’s high-end products. Today, it is a color that can be easily found in any product.
Indeed, ASUS introduced this color for their high-end motherboards, which is why it is associated with high quality. Due to this specific fact, black PCBs are considered to be of higher quality than any other color.
However, this is a myth that is generated from a specific fact. In reality, the materials and manufacturing processes of motherboards are the same, regardless of the color of the PCB. Moreover, the color is merely aesthetic and visual, and does not affect quality.
It is necessary to explain that this layer of the PCB can be of any color or combination of colors. The only thing that the surface layer does is protect the copper wires that connect the components. It goes beyond aesthetics and does not contribute at all to the final product. As a result, you can use motherboards in purple, bubblegum pink, or fluorescent yellow.
However, color does have an impact on one thing.
You may not be aware that the copper wires are “printed” onto a fiberglass-based PCB. This base is always green, as it is simply the color that remains when the product is finished.
In fact, the green color of older motherboards (which you can still see) is due to the green color of the fiberglass itself. What was done was to cover the tracks with a resin that protects the copper wires. This makes the dull green of the untreated fiberglass become brighter.
In the past, transparent resin was used due to cost reasons. In reality, the color is just a shade of the transparent resin, and the PCB remains green. This means that the color impacts the final product’s price. Note that the price of the color pigmentation varies, and the final product’s price will ultimately be different.
Black motherboards will always be more expensive than green motherboards when they have the same components. The difference is around 1 euro, which is not too significant, but it exists.
