Good Motherboards for Linux?

[falcon the fearless]

I am considering doing a build with linux mint 18.3. What are some good motherboards and videocards?

[Zyro]

The most important decision is... AMD or Nvidia?

[Visualvengeance]

Anything should work if it's not cutting edge, as of which mobo, all of them work really AMD or Intel same thing it just works, provided it's not something really new of course.

As of video cards, I'll say this I don't have much experience with AMD hardware, but from what I heard and other people have told me, NVIDIA cards tend to work and run better on Linux. Again, this is just what I heard, I'm really eager to test this myself to see how big the difference is, if any so currently I'm saving up for an all MAD build :)

One more thing, this is more of a software thing and I know some people will disagree with me here. But if you want to have a Linux box for gaming, I'd recommend the Solus distribtuion I had less issues with it than Linux Mint, but this is just my experience :D

Hope this helps you, I'm sure there are others out there more knowledgeable than myself and I'm curious what they have to say :D

[falcon the fearless]

Originally posted by Zyro:

The most important decision is... AMD or Nvidia?

I was thinking a intel chipset.

[Cat on Linux]

Linux is hardware agnostic when it comes to mobos or processors, select anything that fits your system requirements by power (CPU, VRAM, RAM size etc)
Nvidia is safe bet for Linux (but AMD is getting better every year and maybe soon will be as good as Nvidia?).

[Tim]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

Linux is hardware agnostic when it comes to mobos or processors, select anything that fits your system requirements by power (CPU, VRAM, RAM size etc)

Not really. I have very various experience with different mobos on Linux in the past. Modern mobos should work just fine unless they have some bleeding edge technologies, as @Visualvengeance said. But be ready to have limited sensors support and there is always the chance to have poorly driver support for network LAN adapter, WiFi onboard or sound.

With regard to GPU: if your main task is gaming and you planing to use Ubuntu based distros - probably better stick with Nvidia for now.

[tuxdelux]

ASUS is a safe bet. You'll pay a smidge more than a MSI or other cheapest-option, but they have a history of supporting linux desktop initiatives. My hardware setup is in my profile if you are interested.

[Cat on Linux]

weak faulty hardware works same way on Win and Lin, performance is not related to hardware make. sticking to popular mid-end high-end hardware should be OK

[Tim]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

weak faulty hardware works same way on Win and Lin, performance is not related to hardware make.

Yeah, but this is not about faulty hardware, this about poor and sometimes utterly broken Linux support. And this is not only about performance, this also about how well your hardware work on Linux or not work correctly at all, how many features supported. Not fun to have 1/3 volume on Linux compared to Windows. Look at freedesktop.org bugs. You will find that a tons of such long-standing bugs which probably will be never fixed.

So OP is right - you should choose wisely your hardware if you planning using Linux on it.

[Cat on Linux]

there's a site to check specific hardware compatibility for Linux. cutting edge hardware can have issues and some issues might be addressed in 4-5 years or never at all. You can't suggest anything because maybe it works today and tomorrow it will hit a regression or new bug. it's a waste of time to suggest anything. check compatibility site, learn about risks of using your specific hardware and take that risk. google to see if this piece of hardware had any issues. it is THAT simple. OP is lazy to do his research and asks things that can't be answered. No one knows his budget or preferences. No one knows if he'll run for workstation with zillion of big coolers or his suggested video card that operates on high temps will fry in 6 months in his slim desktop case. I just saying "do your research properly"

[Tim]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

it is THAT simple.

No it is not that simple. It is rather naive.

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

there's a site to check specific hardware compatibility for Linux.

Where?

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

You can't suggest anything because maybe it works today and tomorrow it will hit a regression or new bug.

No, you can. Because it is not about today and tomorrow regressions. It is about good vendor support.

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

it's a waste of time to suggest anything.

No it is not. Wasting time it is searching tons of 3rd party sites about Linux hardware compatibly. Official, centralized resource doesn't exist. And thats why there certified Linux hardware exist. Ubuntu is doing great job btw to doing this. And thats why Linux users prefer ThinkPads because of their superior Linux support.

So, this not a waste of time, as you said. The waste of time (an money) - it is rebuild again you PC because you not satisfied how you hardware perform on Linux.

[Tim]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

OP is lazy to do his research and asks things that can't be answered. No one knows his budget or preferences.

Ask him, if you really want to help or just move on. Simple as that. But instead of this you misinformed him by saing this for example:

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

Linux is hardware agnostic when it comes to mobos or processors

[falcon the fearless]

I did do some research before asking the question. I've read on some forums with people who had compatibility issues with their parts and i wanted to avoid as many bloopers as possible.

Cat on Linux if it was that simple i would have not asked the question.

[Cat on Linux]

simple "linux hardware compatibility checker" in google will give you all required tools. something like this can't help? if you know popular picks (ASUS and Nvidia for example) can't you just check for it?
https://certification.ubuntu.com/certification/catalog/

[Visualvengeance]

What I would do is, look at my budget, make a list of the components I need based on the amount of money I'm willing to spend and then just research the heck out of each part to see what others have to say about it and what their experience is.

It's a tedious process and can eat an entire evening, but it's worth if you don't want to buy new parts just because of compability issues.

Google is your best friend doing the research, however keep in mind a couple of things, if the hardware in question has no information about it it's probably going to work, for the most. If people claim performance or compablity is bad/weak on Linux I'd avoid said product and look for an alternative.

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by Tim:

And thats why Linux users prefer ThinkPads because of their superior Linux support.

I have Lenovo mobo in Workstation but it's not about ThinkPads, it's Fujitsu Siemens. there's much more PC builds than ThinkPads with equally supported mobos.

to OP: yes, it is hard to pick the right hardware, and it is even harder to suggest something blindly. what you can get is names of popular brands like Lenovo, ASUS. then you should research for yourself. maybe putting more strict questions can give more answers. something like "is there any issues with ASUS XXXXYYY that I have to be aware of?" or "should I pick Lenovo YYYXX or MSI YUUUYY?"