Do gamers actually like the look of gaming computers and accessories?

Guilty as charged.
Edited to add, this is actually a slightly old picture. I have a white GPU now.
- pause???
  
  Because wearing a gentleman's hat is free
- She's a beaut!
- Mirror’s Edge Catalyst-ass computer
  
  Heck yes! The Gridnode PC!
- Needs a few of these little guys!
  
  This is how I feel about gamers acting pretentious about RGB aesthetic. Neon tetra are sick. It's great they can enjoy minimalism, but let others enjoy RGB vomit. It's like the weirdest flavor of elitism.
- Ok that's pretty cool!
- Sick

No, RGB is annoying and gets disabled if I have no other choice. It's cheap and tacky looking. Basically anything marketed as 'gaming' in my eyes is sub tier garbage.
My overall view on all products, not just gaming stuff if the more buzzwords and slogans and whatnot a company uses, the less I give a crap about them and will actually actively avoid it. Just means they spend more on nonsensical crap then the actual product.
In short; More marketing budget = less quality product

Generally I'm not a fan. Personally I like cold, unassuming industrial stuff.
Something like
OR
- That yellow case looks rad!
- This plus a little wood accent, so good.
- You might like the aesthetics of https://sharge.com/
  Wheres the first img from btw?
  
  Did some searching, apparently it's the One/Three case by Heavy Industries, but their site is offline so no high hopes.
  
  Can't remember =\ may have to reverse search it

I would prefer basic, subtle, black. I don't want rainbows and lights. I'm very function over form.
I'd also rather play a game on medium settings where it runs flawlessly and doesn't make the fans go hard, than at high settings with worse performance.
- I typically avoid RGB everything.
  My everything is black. My mouse has lights but they've been turned off since I got it.
  My keyboard is black. Except for a tiny red line around the volume knob. It's not a light to, just an accent color. And all the keys are blank. The 3 lock lights are there, but even those are darker than most other boards.

I absolutely love the tacky gamer look. I think that most flagship tech these days has a terrible lack of whimsy which makes me a bit sad. Look at back at the old imacs compared to the laptops that apple offers today. Look at the phones of the early 2000s compared to what's currently on offer. It's all straight lines and greyscale now. I do understand that that's a classier look, but I wish there was more out there for people like me who want something that looks a bit more colourful and fun whilst still having good specs.
In my opinion, the gamer aesthetic usually doesn't go hard enough. When my PC is turned off, it's just a black rectangle. But it's the best I can get without breaking the bank or doing something super custom.
- To be fair, those pretty old designs produced a lot of plastic waste. The aluminum ones are much better for the environment. Still, I do miss the interesting designs, shapes, textures and colors.

I think the industry still thinks their target audience is 12 year olds. It's evident also in the aesthetic of the games they make. That being said I am seeing a slow change for the better. If only I could say the same about the prices...

I am but a single humble meatbag that enjoys games and can't speak for all gamers, but I generally dislike the typical "gaming rig" aesthetic. I don't want RGB lights. I don't like ostentatious looking cases or accessories. I do find it tasteless, to reuse your term.
No sleight on those that do though. If that's your style, then enjoy it!
- Some tasteful rgb isn't bad but it has to be executed really well

Generally yes, though I do want it to be functional foremost. My computer is essentially a toy to me. When I press a button on my keyboard and it shoots a wave across my peripherals that is cool to me, or when the lighting is synchronized with what’s happening in game, very neat. People take themselves way too seriously.

I hate it. I resent that I have to get an app to turn off the horrible lights in the computer and peripherals.

I would like it if it was subtle, maybe a few thin rgb lines around the main board like traces, and something similar on other components.
I hate the everything blaring random lights look, its like a kids attempt to draw attention, it works but when you look you wish you hadn't.

The eye grabbing lights and glass covers are fucking idiotic. My best builds are black towers, great airflow, minimal lights, and barely any noise. I'm focused on the game, not the machine.
The thing needs to be forgotten. It's not the center of attention. The monitor is.
- CEO of Monitors Inc: Got it, put eye grabbing RGB all over the monitors!

I started off with fan grills and led fans and cold cathode lighting way back when.
Now, my gaming PC, which is about due for its 5 yr update again, is in an old antec sonata case from 2008ish. I'll probably splurge on a new one next round, but if it's fancy, it will be one of those unassuming fractal cases with wood.
No lights if I can help it.

I have a keyboard that lights up because I like to type in the dark and my dexterity isn't what it used to be but that's about it. I would've preferred a solid color but RGB was all I found. Not a bad for $20, it's a solid steel frame
Oh, right. No the "gamer ascetic" is garish as fuck. I just want something that works.

The wonders of marketing making people believe that RGB vomit is desirable.
The only LED i care about is white.
- White... supremacy?
- In shocking news, not all people have the same tastes.
  
  Some tastes can be poor
  Some can be influenced as well.

yeah i like the gamer aesthetic

Some gamers do. Like most humans they are attracted to bright, flashy patterns of colors. (most animals actually are). But most mature gamers I know, would rather put some money in better equipment, than flashy colors. So, gamers are as different as the rest of us. Some are caught by the hype, some are not. You see it in cars too. Some like bling, som focus on the actual car.
Me? I like RGB in my keyboards backlight. I don't like it to flash, but I like to make it an orange/reddish color, because that's easy on the eyes, when using your computer at evenings or nights. That's about it.
- I do the same but with blue lights on everything. No patterns, color-changes, or whatever - just everything on a low, static blue

I'm over 30, but even when i was in my early 20s I couldn't stand the blaring lights. A HS friend built up a rig with full flashy RGB shit and I was like "why?" - He thought it was cool, possibly still does.
I mean, I'm supposed to look at the monitor, not the fan or the mouse. Keyboard blacklight is good, tho, so long as it's not red nor a dancing rainbow. Yellow or white are the best kb backlight imo
- I like a soft dark blue. Lights up enough to see but easily just zone it out entirely.

When I built my first computer I got a bunch of RGB and loved it, but by the time it was a few months old, I got bored of it and started to view changing the colors and whatnot as a chore more than anything, so when I built my second computer, I went without.

I kinda like RGB but not in the pulsating rainbow way how it seems to always be on marketing materials.
I like keeping it to one colour, with the intensity at half. It is nice to change it a few times a year for a fresh look.
The fonts and other stuff, I don't care that much as long as the components are good quality. Maybe subconsciously I would consider design if I had to choose between options that performed and cost relatively equally.
- This is the way. I have a few presets and additionally was able to customize my keyboard to have a minimalist Pikachu be on my keyboard. I love that ish.

Personally I prefer for my computer to be an unasuming silent black box that sits under my desk. I go out of my way to remove any lights that I can. RGB for computers seems like lowering for cars. Some people like how it looks but at the extremes it gets really impractical.

I liked the transparent/translucent electronics trend of the 90s and early 2000s, the transparent blue PS2 and green original Xbox models were great.
The modern gamer RGB aesthetic with RGB everything and the jacked up PC cases? I hate it, I think even the light bar on the PS5 is too much. And the new Xbox, I don't even know what it's called series something, it looks terrible.
- the transparent/translucent electronics trend of the 90s and early 2000s
  I've been feeling nostalgic for this look lately. I really like how it emphasizes the artificial nature of the device in question and invites you to think about how it works and how it was put together - while minimalist electronics do exactly the opposite, almost as if you're embarrassed about owning it and want to pretend that it's not there.

I don't like the aesthetic but a lot of my stuff is "gaming" branded for functionality reasons (eg high refresh rate monitor; mice with extra buttons; the mech kb I wanted happened to be gaming branded but I would've bought a keyboard with same specs and price that was not gaming branded). The gaming aesthetic is a bit weird when you think about it.

I spent extra to not have any components with RGB. The only lighting I find tolerable are white (!) LEDs.
- This is the part that bothers me the most. Why does it now cost more for no RGB? I would very happily put my components in a black metal box with good airflow, but that costs extra now. Back in the early 2000s Lian Li used to make really simple brushed aluminum cases and they were beautiful and perfect. Now everything is tempered glass and RGB, sometimes at the cost of airflow/cooling. It's insane.
  
  Market segregation.
  LED gamer builds uses to be the "premium" segment, but they figured out that all the kids who want a "Gaming PC" don't care how loud it is or what the quality is like as long as it matches the "gamer" aesthetic.
  Conversely, someone who cares about sound decibels and airflow as a primary concern is now part of a niche demographic, so they can charge you more.

I'm pretty sure the trend didn't come from nowhere, although like every other fashion most adherents wouldn't have necessarily chosen it in a vacuum.
Whether that makes the preference less valid is an interesting question of it's own.

I turn that shit off asap. I'll put cool stickers on my case or use a low backlight for the keyboard but otherwise why would I want a bunch of distractions from the screen?

I was looking for something with a nicge natural wood finish. LED is dine but no blinking fading, just a solid line without any distraction.

I appreciate the gamer aesthetic when scientists need to buy gear with the power to run scientific calculations for relatively cheap. The RGB lights under the case windows bring a bit of pizzazz to the laboratory.

Yep. I'm the (apparently minority) weirdo that LOVES the rainbow vomit lights. I have lights everywhere on my computer and desk and it brings me so much joy. It just feels happy to me to have the bright rainbow colors slowly shifting. I find it delightful and will pay extra to ensure devices are not only rainbow capable, but are the right type of rainbow (slow shifting) that I love. My side of our gaming office drives my husband nuts. I regret nothing!

I was into it in the early days but got over it quickly. Now I want the opposite and minimize attention my PC draws to itself. Its just pointless and kind of annoying. It was impressive back when it was new and challenging but now its just an element of marketing, and one that I've come to strongly dislike in my builds.

im for whatever is cheap and effective, only performance to cost ratio matters to me.
- I buy whatever’s cheapest (and has the specs I want), but unfortunately that’s almost always the “EP1C K1LLERZ XTREAM PRO ULTRA X” brand... Somehow adding LEDs makes it cheaper.
  I just want a plain cardboard box with the specs and SKU printed on the side like I have at work.

I bought RGB crap once. It stayed on while the PC was in standby mode. Never again.

i do
end of story :)
fun fact: the chinese nicknamed RGB lighting as "light pollution"

I dont care much for RGB in everything.

I think it is all childish, really. Like it is cool for 5 seconds but then you realize it's something you can't just deal with on a regular basis. I know everything that is advertised as 'GAMING' or 'GAMER' is just superfluous and scamming.
I've been okay with unassuming, basic-ass accessories and computers. As long as they do what I paid a lot of money for them to do.
- I like being childish. I miss being childish. therefore my gaming everything will be childish. 😇

On the contrary. I want my device to be as out of the way and unobtrusive as is possible.

I couldn't care less about the looks. I wanna game not attract gaming-mates 😁

back in my day those were case mods. i disable that shit immediately

Fuck no. It's all disgusting.
I just want rainbow transparent tech back. Let me feel like I am still in the early 2000s.

im not against leds, but I hate rainbow barf mode. paert of the things I enjoy is uniqueness of builds, via small or big customizations, and adressable rgb helps, but too many people keep it at default which causes too many fucking builds to look the same.

I think it’s pretty normal for people to want their high end thing to look high end, or whatever high end looks like to them. My PC case is basically a black rectangle with a single pane of glass on one side. It has some rainbow vomit lighting inside that isn’t all customizable with Linux, but my razer mouse mat, mouse, and keyboard all glow a lovely purple, just one static color. My desk, peripherals and case all match in black, so really any color I choose to run with makes for an easy vibe change.
I think maybe a half a dozen people have even seen my pc setup, and I don’t really take visitors back there, so whatever cool looks my setup has are just for me, and I enjoy it.
That said, there is a such thing as it being too busy, too gaudy, etc, so I totally get what you’re saying. My shit is lit up but I still feel like it’s fairly subdued.

I've been a PC gamer for 32 years now. I do enjoy having a clear side panel. I've had one for 22 years. That way you can show off whatever you have inside. I don't use RGB or any kind of lighting. I just think clear electronics are cool, you can see how they are made.

As long as the RGB is tuneable into any other color (combination) I'm okay with it. I also like white gaming peripherals more lately. I don't consciously seek gaming esthetics, but if that's the better value I pick it.
oh and someone else mentioned it's childish. good. I miss being childish. there's very little thing I have to do while AdUlTiNg that let's me being childish. so gaming will be childish for me.

I was riding the first RGB bling bling wave back in the early 2ks and after a while I got sooooooooooooo annoyed by every light my PC emitted.
Same today.
I give a frog about RGB and when I bought my actual PCs back in early 2024 I used an old Chieftec case I had standing around for the first and bought a cheap case of Amazon that has no glass.
Both stand in a way that air can circulate and the PC stays cool, but light is blocked.

I think it looks kinda cool, but it's also what everything else is. So the cool factor is a tad diminished.
I'll grab whichever option is cheapest for the specs I need to hit.

My gaming computer is in an old 4 unit rack mount server case. I think there is some sort of RGB nonsense on the motherboard, but you can't see it once the computer is racked.
Fuck RGB shit.

Well once you add LEDs it increases the FPS 30% so yeah.

My gaming pc lives in a soundproof cupboard 5m away without a case because quietness is more important to me than any visual element, so any RGB thing gets avoided, or turned off.
I can appreciate a very colour coordinated and well put together "gaming" computer in a purely aesthetic sense. Some are genuinely pretty and I get that some folk take a lot of pleasure out of making something that looks beautiful and best of luck to them. But I'm not one of them.
- How do you handle cooling?
  Super quietness sounds great but having a CPU running at 1.000°C doesn't
  
  I drilled a 100mm diameter hole through to the outside of the house and have a 120mm pc fan blowing air directly out from the cupboard through that. Possibly not an option for everyone, but as a householder with power tools, it seemed like a good idea.
  The PC itself is just a motherboard screwed to a flat shelf, with a bracket to hold the graphics card steady.
  Works well most of the time, although in recent 30'c ambient temperature, it got up to around 37c in there when I was playing a modern game. My CPU is only 65w but I've got a new graphics card and that creates a lot more heat when it's working hard.
- I was debating doing something like this; install my build in the crawlspace below my desk. It's just an exterior wall, so running a big enough channel through the wall would mess up the insulation. :(
  That's a sweet setup.
  
  Thank you.

I like minimalist setup, I avoid RGB.

The only RGB I run is for my keyboard and only because I sit in a dark room and everything is black, so it can be difficult to see where the keyboard is. Back when I ran a regular mouse I also had an RGB mouse for the same reason, but carpal tunnel forced a trackball so now the mouse never moves and it no longer needs RGB.

RGB that you can dim/disable beats a blaring bright red or blue LED you can’t, other than that I could leave gamer design behind
And I’m happy that backlit keyboards are widespread

My take, I was a gamer when I was young, when a 386 was gaming for me and till today when a 4090 is gaming for me, but I prefer normal looking shit without RGB. My 4090 colours allow me to set it to one shade of blue that I like, but I’ll be happy with a closed unit without any colour as well. What I would prefer, over colours, is free time to actually game :/

No. I turn off the flashy LED shit.

I think there's a fine line to be walked
Personally the only lights on my PC itself are the Ethernet ports on the back, and one little blue power indicator on the front
And since I built it in an HTPC case and stuffed it into my entertainment center, you kind of need to be looking at it from just the right angle to even see those. The case itself is a pretty unassuming black rectangle that looks pretty much like any other piece of AV equipment you might expect to see under a TV. About the size of a normal AV receiver, with a disc drive, a power and reset button, 2 USB ports, and a headphone and microphone jack.
My keyboard is a Keychron Q6 max with side-printed shine-through key caps, and my mouse is a Gameball Thumb (I like trackballs, and it's nice since I'm gaming on the couch so not much convenient flat space to move a mouse around) which has single ring of LEDs around the trackball and a small indicator LED to show the DPI settings on the mouse. Both of those turn off when they're idle, and when they're in use I have them set to a pretty simple spinning color mode.
My setup is in a finished basement and the lights are usually down so it's nice having them light up for the ease of seeing what I'm doing, and the simple color animations aren't too distracting.
Where my lighting excess does come in though is with the Philips hue lights I have synced up to my TV the overhead lights, a light strip behind my tv, and a light tube underneath it. Between that and the surround sound I think it's really immersive for movies and gaming. I think I've hit a good balance of it having some wow factor without being too distracting but opinions will of course vary on that.

I used to be against it, then my PC died in the early COVID days and the only (practical) way I could get a future-proofed replacement was to get a pre-built, and they all had RGB.
From there, though, it grew on me. Like so many other things I enjoy about working with computers, the learning process was just super enjoyable for me.
I read about different standards (RGB vs aRGB, 3 pins vs 4 pins, this module or that one, this software vs that), tried a few things, and got it looking like I wanted. Now I'm using OpenRGB to make my own patterns that match the room or the weather or whatever wallpaper I've got. Turning understanding into control and self-expression just feels good man.

I got a plain black case without a window. I used to have Razer KB+Mouse but after a deathadder and viper died I'm trying a logitech mouse, the matched RGB was nice at first but I lost interest in it.