True, some of the bad reviews on newegg are obviously semi-trolling. But if you actually know your hardware, you can see a lot of newegg 'reviews' that seem to be reasonable, but at just wrong (example- rosewill power supplies are great!....no, they are pretty awful).

I look at hardware manufacturer sites a lot. Probably too much.

Had a look at the motherboard/video card pages from MSI or gigabyte lately? They dont mention linux much at all, and when they do its normally just a boilerplate 'check with your distro for support' message.

ATI/AMD arent 'end' manufacturers, they dont sell any (major) hardware products to the general public. The manufacturers just buy ATI/AMD chipsets, GPUs etc. and then make the video cards, motherboards etc. from there. Same goes for nVidia, and intel does the same thing, though intel does have a manufacturering arm.

+1 to TobiSGD.

If you arent even going for a quad-core, then a 9XX chipset is probably a waste of money. 870 chipsets are cheaper, and I know 100% for sure they work with linux.

example: asus laptop delivered with ubuntu. see http://www.ixsoft.de/cgi-bin/web_store.cgi
or other stores delivering computers with linux.
or.. google in forum from linux distros to see who has sucess on which hardware
or buy a 50 Euros old box.. and install a small linux distro on it.

wow I seem to be able to get lost in thread...as pup looks up with leash in mouth (one of these days he's going to bury my puter in yard)
Anyway, cascade9 ya know I've actually had a few low end items do really good for me so I can see a noob touting a mfg that probably puts out 25% good working units.
And in the bazzarro world I have next to me a Gigabyte 890FXUD5 DOA mobo that I reasearched for a week as the perfect mobo for 970-quad video/gamer box for that bang for buck deal, and it looks like it banged my new video card and my patriot gamer ram too.
Now I didn't go asrock (76.00 cheaper) or the UD3 (50.00 cheapr) but Nooooooo I decided throw a few xtra bucks for a no hassel build (if there is such a thing).

When I looked up the mobo I did go to AMD because it had a amd type chipset and I did look thru there docs for any pertinent info and I did find some things mostly for hardware details (wanted to make sure 890 was ok and not needing the 9xx) not specifically linux, but that do matter too

In regards to linux I go to the downline mfg yes as in gigabyte then support and fire off that e or 2 i mentioned with any specific questions, the level of feedback i guess depends on the question...funny thing about this build at the time I wanted the TT amd "leo" enclosure and could not find them anywhere... I actually talked with a guy at TT (ThermalTake) about a shipment to newegg that disappeared... he called a guy at amd and they gave me a date when to expect them in, newegg wasn't going to comment on it... so sometimes it can be very helpful.

...anyway back to the original point :
The hardware linux thing boils down to drivers does your flavor of linux have driver support for the hardware... unless you have cutting edge hardware most of the time the answer is yes it may not be fully supported but usually it will have something to at least be seen/used.
You are on the right track though... posting what your intended hardware will be here and "googling" should hopefully get you some feedback and maybe some user experience's to help you out... and with any luck after all the research and compat issues, pricing and will the whole thing do what you want...you wont end up getting RMA's... at least they remember me and the rma thing zips along !

*blinks*

See, that is why I say dont trust newegg reviews- you'll get all manner of crap with 'yeah, its fantastic!' reviews.

There is no 890FX-UD3, that would be the 870 (or a possibly different variant). Buying a 890FX is likely to be MORE hassle, thanks to the extra stuff that is on the 890FX boards. The 890FXs are decent, but more than most people need, and not god for 'bang for buck'.

Sending an emial is not the same as listing driver support for linux on the manufacturer website.

BTW, you actually wanted a TT leo? Its one of the ugliest cases I've ever seen. Mind you, I stopped paying any attention to TT years ago, when they started churning out really ugly 'chieftec' cases.

*understands the blink*

I think you missed my point..
Even if you do all your homework and have all the things you want or need in your build, doesn't guarantee all will go well.
I can't believe I'm going to try to explain this, but here goes:
No not a FX UD3 I believe it was GX (onboard video) after checking toms hardware the onboard vga was slooow... didn't even match the previous chipset onboard vga another reason for FX gaining another video "bus/pipe".
At the time I think there was only a 890GX UD3, but they make 870,880,890 UD3's.
"Stuff Extra" surely you jest...I know and stop calling me Shirley...one mans xtra is another mans WoW !!!
After being around linux a while I feel great that they (mfg) will even talk linux...they use to act like they never heard of it.
ATI/AMD has come along way in linux, granted more would be nice... but after just getting the new ati/gigabyte (video)drivers in my FC14 without a glitch I'm not in the mood for a nit pick.
And yes BTW the pics online did not do it justice,(amd case) it looks good the glary red glow gets me in the mood for "far cry2" and my other "FPS's", which help keep my blood pressure manageable.
Ok I'll admit my first impression of it wasn't great but I decided to try it, yea TT isn't considered good quality like the antec I'm on now, but i like the "amd Leo" and it's got some cool features and was a relative ease to mod and put together...another xtra was one of only 2 cases with usb3 on front panel at the time.
And I don't think the UD5 is a bad board I think newegg shipped me some junk, I sometimes wonder if they re-ship returns; it doesn't matter I'm in touch with Gigabyte and feel all warm and cozy with my new RMA and labels just like I had to do with my last 970 and AMD and they were great too...
I'm not trying to bad mouth newegg, hey they got BIG and stuff happens, I got even , my last few components I went elsewhere I should tell you what power supply I put in the beautiful AMD LEO but all the extras it has would piss you off

.....come on fellas....play nice.!!!!

This seems to work OK. About a year old though. Good reference for someone on a budget.

Edit: just more input

http://www.saltycrane.com/blog/2011/...top-pc-myself/

If your building it for you or someone who understands it's limitations great.

i've used nvidia ion boards that work pretty nice.

the ralink 802.11 card was a little tricky.

Just FYI johntor-

890GX should not be slower than 790GX, comapring oranges with oranges. Its not hard to make the 790GX look faster, if you choose a 790GX board with sideport memory and a 890GX without sideport memory.

Sicne you even brought up onbaord video, I cant image that a 890FX would be worth it at all- the only difference between the 890FX chipset and a 870 chipset is the extra PCIe lanes on the 890FX (for crossfire). The 'extra junk' I was refereing to is things like sub-standard 'eSATA' and 'RAID' controllers which 890FX boards tend to have when the 870s dont (again, you'll find 870s with that junk..the GA-870A-UD3 does, which is the only thing I dont like about that board).

There is no 890GX-UD3 (its a UD3H) or 880 (UD3H again).

Newegg wouldnt ship you a return. If they did, it would have been 'open box', though that is normally reserved for boards that have been RMAed. It could have been a DOA baord, it does happen, or it could be due to mishandling.

I have seen a TT Leo 'in the flesh'. Actually, I saw one in a shop long beofre I had seen one online.

I doubt it. But if it makes you feel better, believe it all you want......

Whoa, that is an ugly case. And with only 210 mm width to small to put my system in.