Awful motherboard software design and boxes:

rei · Post by **rei** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:29 am

Why can't any motherboard makers with their proprietary custom tweaking/OC-ing programs making it look OS-appropriate 'neutral' like Speedfan? Everything looks like it's been put through Alien Skin filters for no good reason:

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/02/1 ... of-th.html

mr. poopyhead · Post by **mr. poopyhead** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:38 am

i think these taiwanese marketing departments have no CLUE about the culture in north america... what they think is clever, or EXTREME!!!! like the monster trucks and naked silver robots, looks ridiculously cheesy to us...

that's also why asus comes up with lame slogans like "rock solid, heart touching" .... honestly... rock solid? heart touching?? would it kill them to hire a north american marketing firm? or at least some proofreaders for their english?

i dunno... maybe it works in asia and europe... who knows?

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:50 am

mr. poopyhead wrote:i dunno... maybe it works in asia and europe... who knows?

Nope.. not in Europe anyway..

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:55 am

I couldn't care less about box design as long as the hardware itself is good. I mean after the installation I'll put away the box and never look at it again unless I need a manual or RMA it, so who cares what it looks like.

Horribly designed software with stupid GUIs like razer one or pretty much any utility that comes with motherboards(Abit, Asus)/videocards(Asus)/soundcards(all of them), yes, those are a pain to use and I do wish they were designed like any standard winapp.

nycxandy · Post by **nycxandy** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:39 pm

I'm pretty sure no one judges their motherboard purchase by the box design.

openwheelformula1 · Post by **openwheelformula1** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:41 pm

I don't care about box designs either. Bad designs don't steer me away, and good designs don't draw me to them. It's the hardware that matters. I couldn't careless about their English, as long as I get what I paid for.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:43 pm

The Palit Radeon HD3870 has a frog in a suit of hi-tech armor on the box.

sun.moon · Post by **sun.moon** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:47 pm

The first time I ever see a box, is after the goods have been delivered from an online shop - the box has absolutely zero marketing effect on me.

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:32 am

Gigabyte actually has a pretty neutral box design (at least it was for my 965P-DS3): Text, features, a bit of neutral graphics (an "s" in 3d). Quite OK, although not appealing. But it has been said before, mostly we buy because of the contents, not because of the box.

vaio · Post by **vaio** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:04 am

Perhaps the software utilities look so tacky because they are aimed more towards the inexperienced user.

Experienced pc users tend to prefer making settings change thru bios anyway and most I know don't even look at/install the rubbish shipped with hardware.

As to packaging, I never go to a hardware store so would be quite happy if the stuff came in plain boxes a la Thermalright.

Companies should spend less on marketing and more on good product design

Avalanche · Post by **Avalanche** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:01 am

Ha ha, I completely agree with Mr Poopyhead. The phrase "Rock Solid" makes pretty good sense as a slogan, but "Heart Touching"? That makes me shake my head every time my computer comes up. It must make sense in East Asia.

FlorisNielssen · Post by **FlorisNielssen** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:30 pm

I just noticed the box my Asus M2N motherboard is pretty boring...

Gray, with blue M2N on it. On the back some specs.

First time I've taken a good look at it.

Redzo · Post by **Redzo** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 1:16 pm

Why would anyone care about a box their hardware comes in. It's not the box you are using or ????

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:36 pm

mr. poopyhead wrote:i think these taiwanese marketing departments have no CLUE about the culture in north america... what they think is clever, or EXTREME!!!! like the monster trucks and naked silver robots, looks ridiculously cheesy to us...

I dunno...naked silver robots in monster trucks might just be the ticket - it's just that none of the motherboard manufacturers has the balls to go all the way!!!!

And, to prevent any confusion, I'll invoke the [/sarcasm] tag.

-D

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:34 am

i'm buying the first gfx card that has naked chicks on it.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:44 am

Interesting to hear opinions from all yours towards my tiny home-island.

Sorry, our hardware manufactures were mostly concentrating on hardware design. Because they followed Intel & Microsoft for a very long time, they tend to be unable to code a good software for users. Software is an unsolved issue for most makers here, they like to imitate rather than innovate.

As for English, most RDs were good at reading; however, that wasn't the case when they wrote English. You might had a trouble of reading our written English on manuals.

Having said all of that, the issues mentioned above wouldn't be solved easily cause those issues involved with our policy, education, governments etc., and it won't be solved in the foreseeable future, in my humble opinion.

lm · Post by lm » Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:27 am

I guess the OP meant "box design" as in program windows are simple boxes instead of looking like an alien eye, instead of the physical cardboard box that the things are shipped in?

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:21 pm

lm wrote:I guess the OP meant "box design" as in program windows are simple boxes instead of looking like an alien eye, instead of the physical cardboard box that the things are shipped in?

No, he meant the pictures of weapons bearing chicks in sexy armor that tend to be on many retail packages and similar nonsense (my Asrock MB had a spaceship on the box and manual). That, in addition to poor software interface design and poorly written documentation.

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:59 pm

mr. poopyhead wrote:i think these taiwanese marketing departments have no CLUE about the culture in north america... what they think is clever, or EXTREME!!!! like the monster trucks and naked silver robots, looks ridiculously cheesy to us...

that's also why asus comes up with lame slogans like "rock solid, heart touching" .... honestly... rock solid? heart touching?? would it kill them to hire a north american marketing firm? or at least some proofreaders for their english?

i dunno... maybe it works in asia and europe... who knows?

Hey, Asus is in touch with it's feminine side. There aren't only males building PCs... Actually it would make sense for macs, except there's no such thing as building a mac.

mbetea · Post by **mbetea** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:17 pm

would it kill them to hire a north american marketing firm?

Oh, they did. But the american firm outsourced it.

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:58 am

the original poster was talking about software UI.

As for the box design, it probably doesn't matter how ugly it is if you know what you're buying beforehand. If you're the type that walks into a B&M store without a clue what you're gonna buy, box design matters. Sure, brand X with ugly box may have more fantastic features, but Joe Blow's gonna get Brand Y with the nice shiny box. Big shiny boxes look good in a showroom.

mbetea · Post by **mbetea** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:48 am

I would agree with the OP. But I would also say it's not limited to board makers. A lot of software companies seem to do this. And if it's a piece of software that allows 3rd party custom skins, eek! Look out. (See winamp, WMP, firefox, etc)

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:05 pm

Techno Pride wrote:the original poster was talking about software UI.

As for the box design, it probably doesn't matter how ugly it is if you know what you're buying beforehand. If you're the type that walks into a B&M store without a clue what you're gonna buy, box design matters. Sure, brand X with ugly box may have more fantastic features, but Joe Blow's gonna get Brand Y with the nice shiny box. Big shiny boxes look good in a showroom.

You're right. It wasn't until the 3rd post that packaging joined the fray. Not particularly off-topic, though, as the people with the worst boxes also commit the GUI crimes. We weren't complaining about shiny so much as ridiculous, anyway.