MSI Motherboards Going Green: No more Paper Attachments

[Turmania]

MSI - In the process, why don't You remove all that "fancy" plastic and RGB from Your products as well?

Have you, yet been acquainted with their ' Unify ' series of mothernboards?

 

[Ruru]

What about the useless driver CD's that most people no longer have readers for and contain outdated drivers when a customer recieves it?
Also the annoying M.2 screws (each one in it's own plastic bag). Move to toolless M.2 please.

I've seen boards where the M.2 screws are already on the standoffs.

 

[InVasMani]

This will really offset the cryptocurrency mining GPU's they sell by that pallet loads.

 

[Synthwave]

No printed user manual? How great!

ffs...

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

If they actually *cared* about the enviroment and the usage of resources, then MSI would be using western factories that have to comply with modern enviromental regulations. They'd be using plain brown cardboard, ditch the useless CD, and build their products to last instead of cheaping out in the most absurd ways. They wouldnt use multiple tiny plastic bags for screws, sell GPUs to miners, ece.

This is just posturing to justify cost cutting measures while they build $2100 motherboards.

They just want to save money, they don't care about the environment.

Yup. "enviromental" movements today are 99% grifts to make cash.

 

[micropage7]

although it looks nice, personally i still prefer paper - manual book, just make it more simple
and just leave the light RGB effect on the motherboard coz it eats more power and less plastic coz not "green"

 

[watzupken]

Honestly, all these supposed "green" efforts are just for marketing and an excuse for them to cut cost. Think about this, you are removing some thin sheets of paper from the packaging, but putting a lot more metal and "stuffs" on the motherboard to make it look bling/ flashy, over build the boards, etc... Green? Think again. That's why all these supposed "green/ sustainable" initiatives are all fluff and smoke screen.

 

[Ruru]

Honestly, all these supposed "green" efforts are just for marketing and an excuse for them to cut cost. Think about this, you are removing some thin sheets of paper from the packaging, but putting a lot more metal and "stuffs" on the motherboard to make it look bling/ flashy, over build the boards, etc... Green? Think again. That's why all these supposed "green/ sustainable" initiatives are all fluff and smoke screen.

And the cost-cutting doesn't reflect to customers, the manufacturer saves few pennies and that's it.

 

[GoldHorse]

I could get on board with removing most of that stuff, but not the manual. Paper manuals must use such a tiny amount of resources to produce compared to the actual motherboard, and they're really useful. Can just flick through it to find things much more easily than squinting at a phone screen.

As people have mentioned, the impact of the glossy full colour printed boxes is likely much much bigger than the easily recycled paper inside the box.

 

[aQi]

This should be the procedure with all hardware and peripherals.

 

[Cutechri]

Another company pretending to care about the environment. None of them do.

 

[itguy2003]

Funny, this reminds me of in hotels when basically they reduce cost/staff needed by not washing your towels and then try to advertise it to you as "going green"....... but still charge you the same.

 

[trsttte]

They just want to save money, they don't care about the environment.

We still get the benefit anyway so I'm still happy

Oh god. I hope they dont do it the ASUS way and forcibly install their software via UEFI


Instead of giving you paper options to throw away, they wait til the OS is loaded and spam you with preinstalled popups and bullshit...

Wait what the actual fuck!? Anyway to prevent that?

Greenwashing at its finest:

"We stopped putting our extra marketing material in the box because everyone gets it from the internet now"
"We're green now, instead burning the coal on datacenters to provide you said marketing... and guess what, we even saved money on print"

I heard that argument before but it's hard to prove either way. Because it's also necessary to burn coal to cut the trees and eventually turn them into paper which is then printed and transported (added weight), and then the paper also needs to be discarded. The datacenter also needs to be built of course, and there's all the ewaste on both sides (datacenter and client device), etc.

In the end I think moving digital is still a positive because the datacenter is already there, getting more efficient and is only used by whoever needs the information, as oposed to sending hundreds of small pages of manuals in 5 or more different languages where half the users will only read the 2 or 3 pages with the connection pin out (which they should still include in a sigle page or print in the box imo)

 

[Vayra86]

I heard that argument before but it's hard to prove either way. Because it's also necessary to burn coal to cut the trees and eventually turn them into paper which is then printed and transported (added weight), and then the paper also needs to be discarded. The datacenter also needs to be built of course, and there's all the ewaste on both sides (datacenter and client device), etc.

In the end I think moving digital is still a positive because the datacenter is already there, getting more efficient and is only used by whoever needs the information, as oposed to sending hundreds of small pages of manuals in 5 or more different languages where half the users will only read the 2 or 3 pages with the connection pin out (which they should still include in a sigle page or print in the box imo)

Maybe I should have added an /s.

It was in jest, ultimately a piece of paper alongside a motherboard is a complete non issue. But its marketed as 'going green'.

The issue we have and 'go green' for... isn't that our industry isn't 'green'. Its the fact that we have built and thrived on systems that are not sustainable. That's the key word here. Green is just bullshit if we keep using more stuff.

 

[trsttte]

Maybe I should have added an /s.

It was in jest, ultimately a piece of paper alongside a motherboard is a complete non issue. But its marketed as 'going green'.

The issue we have and 'go green' for... isn't that our industry isn't 'green'. Its the fact that we have built and thrived on systems that are not sustainable. That's the key word here. Green is just bullshit if we keep using more stuff.

Woooshh totally went over my head

Absolutely, one of the big problems with paper is not even using more or less of it to save trees but which trees are being used.

But a win is win, no matter how small (let's hope they also do away with the stupid plastic peels on everything)

 

[AusWolf]

Oh god. I hope they dont do it the ASUS way and forcibly install their software via UEFI


Instead of giving you paper options to throw away, they wait til the OS is loaded and spam you with preinstalled popups and bullshit...

Wait what the actual fuck!? Anyway to prevent that?

1. That software is actually useful as it gives you driver updates and really easy to use RGB control compared to some other manufacturers.
2. You have the choice not to install it.
3. You have the choice to entirely disable the option in BIOS.

 

[trsttte]

1. That software is actually useful as it gives you driver updates and really easy to use RGB control compared to some other manufacturers.
2. You have the choice not to install it.
3. You have the choice to entirely disable the option in BIOS.

1. It's not useful to me, my computer my choice

2. I went over the other thread, you have the choice to disable it if you happen to know about it (don't know if that changed but have no reason to believe it did), other wise you'll have a nice surprise next time you boot up.

3. I shouldn't need to disable anything. Opt in by default should (and is for a lot of areas) be outright banned - like some pointed out in the other thread about this, it's more than likely that this is not even legal in the EU, but of course the DIY pc market is not that large in the big scheme of things so probably no one noticed.

Want to have extra feature like auto instalation of crapware? Fine, but the default should always be disabled, not to mention the security implications on this so it shouldn't even exist! If the software is so useful include it in a damn usb stick so people with no internet conection can also "enjoy" it

 

[Xaser04]

All the marketing guff I can get but not the manual (which is actually useful).

Meanwhile are they going to do anything about the amount of plastic waste that comes in each box. Why do the SATA cables need to be in separate sealed bags, M2 screws in individual bags (why?!) and all the extra crap they shoehorned onto the Z690 Godlike...

Sadly it isn't like MSI is alone in this either.

Opening a HP monitor the other day at work presented us with a single sheet of paper (can't recall exactly what was on it but nothing useful) on a card backing wrapped in plastic.... W.T.A.Frick?!

 

[Mussels]

Wait what the actual fuck!? Anyway to prevent that?

Only by entering the BIOS and disabling the setting every time the CMOS gets reset

I have it on my ryzen boards as well as the article confirming its on their intel ones too

 

[MarsM4N]

Ah! I didn't see that announcement.

Here it is:

Back then I was laughing about it, didn't care about Diablo. Now Battlefield is pulling the same nonsense with Battlefield Mobile.
Because torturing the Battlefield fanbase with Battlefield2042 wasn't enough. Salt into fresh wounds.

 

[AusWolf]

1. It's not useful to me, my computer my choice

2. I went over the other thread, you have the choice to disable it if you happen to know about it (don't know if that changed but have no reason to believe it did), other wise you'll have a nice surprise next time you boot up.

3. I shouldn't need to disable anything. Opt in by default should (and is for a lot of areas) be outright banned - like some pointed out in the other thread about this, it's more than likely that this is not even legal in the EU, but of course the DIY pc market is not that large in the big scheme of things so probably no one noticed.

Want to have extra feature like auto instalation of crapware? Fine, but the default should always be disabled, not to mention the security implications on this so it shouldn't even exist! If the software is so useful include it in a damn usb stick so people with no internet conection can also "enjoy" it

1. That's fine, just disable the option. If you forget, you're presented with the question "do you want to install Armoury Crate?" How much of an effort is it to click no instead of yes?

2. We're talking about TUF and Strix motherboards. How many people buy one and not go through the BIOS settings after assembly?

3. This I agree with, although I still think it's a non-issue this time.

 

[Mussels]

1. That's fine, just disable the option. If you forget, you're presented with the question "do you want to install Armoury Crate?" How much of an effort is it to click no instead of yes?

2. We're talking about TUF and Strix motherboards. How many people buy one and not go through the BIOS settings after assembly?

3. This I agree with, although I still think it's a non-issue this time.

1. In the case of the auto install, it installs a service into windows that produces that popup, that always runs and connects to the internet. It's a security risk and a waste of resources so of course its annoying - and its how asus dealt with the concept of reducing waste in the motherboard packaging.
2. most dont. Those that do, rarely know about the poorly documented "forcibly installs a hidden service" setting

3. the security issue is the problem, that server gets hacked and millions of systems will auto connect to it on the spot

 

[pavle]

MSI (as all the others) could go green only one way - with paper made out of hemp, but I guess that would be too green for their little souls.

 

[Valantar]

MSI (as all the others) could go green only one way - with paper made out of hemp, but I guess that would be too green for their little souls.

More likely too expensive and running foul of various (idiotic, but real) legal hurdles in the use of hemp, so it's likely not even considered. Of course, even if they did, that still wouldn't bypass the issues of non-recyclable (or very difficult to recycle) laminated and printed packaging, nor the overall material waste built into the conventions dominating product packaging and distribution.

 

[Wirko]

After this good deed, MSI has just one detail left to finish. Replace the epoxy resin in PCBs with paper (which has been used since ever for lower-grade PCBs anyway), and the glass fibres with bamboo/flax/hemp/other plant fibres. Or possibly silk for DDR5/PCIe5.