Computer science and technology is plagued with rather curious urban myths and legends that we would hardly find the origin of. One of the most curious legends has to do with a very subtle change in motherboards: color. Specifically, with the arrival of the first black PCBs , it was said that these were and are of better quality , but is this true?
Many surely have not known the motherboards whose PCB was green or yellow, some were even blue. Currently, nothing surprises us anymore because we have seen all kinds of colors. Although black and white are the usual ones, we find them in grey, red or a combination of colors.
Are black motherboards better quality?
For this we must go back many years, a time with processors with a maximum of four cores and graphics cards with compact heatsinks. So, there was not much fantasy in the colors, there were three colors for the PCB . They were usually green and yellow, while Gigabyte used to use blue. Everything changed with ASUS.
You may not know this, but ASUS was the first motherboard manufacturer to create a black colored PCB. Specifically, this color was exclusive to the company’s high-end . Today, it is a color that we can easily find in any range of products.
Sure, ASUS introduced this color for its high-end motherboards, hence it is associated with higher quality. Due to this specific fact, it is believed that a black PCB is of higher quality than any other color.
We are sorry to tell you that this is a myth generated from a specific fact. Actually, the materials and the manufacturing process of a motherboard, regardless of the color of the PCB, is the same. The color of it is only aesthetic , visual, it does not affect its quality .
We have to explain that this layer of the PCB can be any color or combination of colors. The only thing the surface layer does is protect the copper tracks that connect the elements. It does not contribute absolutely anything else to the final product, beyond aesthetics. Consequently, we could have a purple, bubblegum pink or phosphorescent yellow motherboard.
But, color does influence one thing
Something you probably don’t know is that the copper tracks are “printed” on a PCB made of fiberglass. Said base is always green, simply, it is the color that remains when the product is finished.
Actually, the green of the old motherboards (which can still be seen) is that of the fiberglass itself. What was done is to cover the tracks with a resin that protects the copper tracks. This makes the green color, which is duller in untreated fiberglass, brighter.
Before, transparent resin was used due to costs. Really, the color is just a tint of the transparent resin, the PCB is still green. This means that color influences the price of the final product. You should keep in mind that the pigmentations have different prices and the price of the final product ends up varying.
A black motherboard will always be more expensive than a green one, if they have the same elements. The difference can be 1 euro, it is not very big, but it exists.