The problem with a gold motherboard color is that it often looks too much like copper, and several companies have tried it in recent years (ASUS on Z77, ECS’ Golden Series) with limited success. Back during Z77 launch, one group of users seems to not like the scheme, or couldn’t found a combination that works. There is the old gold themed specialist modded PC that looks good, but I’ll be honest and say I have not seen that many in general when red and black themes tend to win out. I have heard proponents of gold components suggest that the color scheme works in certain markets, such as China and the Middle East, but until I see those numbers I’d take it with a grain of salt.

Nonetheless, for Skylake, MSI has you covered.

As part of the Gaming range, this model is aimed at the H150/B150 crowd more than the high end, and while I have heard remarks that it looks like the brown PCBs of old, that is actually a gold colored PCB that seems to have glitter embedded in it. The booth lighting didn’t help capture the effect properly, but I wonder if this isn’t part of a bigger idea.

MSI has been playing around with color schemes for a while, such as the ECO and the Krait series of motherboards which are both separate from the regular Gaming line or something like the OC Certified line. It is only going to be a matter of time before we try all colors, but it makes me wonder if this model was done at the request of a regional SI who wanted a few thousand units for their customers as part of a custom order. I have seen other motherboard companies put custom product runs into the mainstream before, and this might be the case here.

No word on regional release or pricing as of yet. I’m not sold on the color scheme straight away, and the glittery effect made me think about putting it in pink and slapping a Hello Kitty logo on it. I would be interested in seeing the scope of the sales though, especially where and to which retailers/system integrators.

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  • WhisperingEye - Wednesday, January 13, 2016 - link

    To quote Ja Rule, "It's not how you stand by your car, it's how you drive your car." Hope I convoluted the point to you.
  • Strunf - Thursday, January 14, 2016 - link

    In the case of a car I would understand picking one color over another but in this case even if the PCB looks great after you install all the components you'll see little of it and that is if you have a window on your case...
  • boozed - Thursday, January 14, 2016 - link

    Thankyou for the revelation that people have colour preferences.
  • HollyDOL - Thursday, January 14, 2016 - link

    Same here... alas if there were two boards that match "what I want" in the means of features/performance etc., one being this gold and other pretty much any other colour (perhaps except pink :-)) I'd choose the one not gold :-)
  • CaedenV - Thursday, January 14, 2016 - link

    My motherboard came with gold colored capacitors, but there was an issue with one of the DIMMs and I had to send it back for RMA. The replacement was the same in every respect... except that the gold color was missing from the caps! Tacky as gold can be, it actually looked pretty nice as an accent color.
  • Beaver M. - Thursday, January 14, 2016 - link

    For the Russian market only?
  • dsraa - Thursday, January 14, 2016 - link

    Ewwwwww.....it looks god-awful. like I'm back in the early 90's with my Pentium 100mhz CPU..
  • name99 - Thursday, January 14, 2016 - link

    I want a Rose Gold motherboard to match my iPhone :-)

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