alt Hacker NewsFinding consumer hardware that isn't riced to the max is getting hard. I wish pcpartpicker had a checkbox to filter out anything with RGB lights. Or one to filter out things marketed towards 13 year old boys - but that might be harder.
Preempting the inevitable comment: "just turn it off". That doesn't always work. I bought a mouse once, I think it was Razor, that required their electron slop-ware to control the lights. And if you didn't keep the software running, the lights would default to on. I had to take it apart to desolder the LEDs and throw them in the trash. And of course, like all mice I've seen, the screws were under the teflon feet, so I had to mangle them slightly to get in there. It was a decent mouse otherwise, but screw that nonsense.
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The closest I've seen to this are the ASUS ProArt cases/components, which lean toward a modernized, stealthy workstation vibe, as well as some cases from botique Chinese manufacturers like Streacom and Jonsbo/Jonsplus which also go for a sleek but more professional and subdued aesthetic.
The downside is that they're not cheap.
I'm now at the point I research parts to see where the LED control is stored.
My keyboard LED is controlled internally without software. My mouse requires software to set, but there is open source rgb control software that was trivial to install and set once, uninstall and forget.
The only one I got wrong was my GPU, which apparently isn't rgb but just has a strip of coloured light beaming at all times.
Thankfully my case isnt mesh everything, so most light is kept inside.
Check out OpenRGB. It more often than not supports your device and it runs on most OS’s. I used it to turn off the rave happening in my rig.
Just get the logitech competition. I've had multiple G series mice, they all have on-board memory. I have a cooler master which behaves the same.
You can program them from a VM, then toss that away and the mouse remembers its settings, even multiple "profiles". You don't have to put up with electron slop-ware or whatever the crap dev platform du jour is. They just work.
This is honestly why if it didn't start life as an OEM (Dell, HP, Lenovo) part, I just buy Supermicro workstation boards, as they tend to use the better workstation chipsets, don't have any of the silly shit like RGB, and seem to just be more durable and better built in my experience.
> I bought a mouse once,
I had a logitech that did the same thing. When I found out I had to use the Windows bloatware to turn the LEDs off I became so enraged that I opened the mouse with my bear hands then twisted and ripped the LEDs off the board.
Ironically for gaming usage that electron slopware can get you VAC banned (I think you need to have used certain features not merely have it installed). I should probably find the OSS alternative that allows me to turn it off.
It's also getting to a point where I wind up paying a price premium for non capital g gamer hardware. Fortunately opaque cases are still a thing and can hide some of it.