Motherboards Linux Reviews & Articles

There have been 149 Linux hardware reviews and benchmark articles on Phoronix for motherboards. Separately, check out our news section for related product news.

ASRock X99 Extreme3 Is An Affordable Choice For Linux Users

For those in the market for an LGA-2011v3 motherboard this holiday shopping season, a very reasonable and affordable choice is the ASRock X99 Extreme3. For just over $200 USD you can get this DDR4-3000+ motherboard that supports Thunderbolt, ten Serial ATA 3.0 ports, 18-core Xeon processors, three PCI Express x16 slots, and numerous other connections for offering a feature-packaged motherboard at a modest price compared to other LGA-2011v3 motherboards.

22 December 2014 - 9 Comments
Habey MITX-6771: Mini-ITX Board With Quad-Core J1900 Bay Trail

While Habey may not be a household name to most Linux desktop users, they are known in the embedded world and do produce Linux-friendly systems and motherboards. Habey recently engaged with Phoronix and today we are checking out our first Habey motherboard: the MITX-6771 that's a mini-ITX motherboard with Intel Bay Trail quad-core SoC.

6 December 2014 - 5 Comments
MSI X99S SLI PLUS On Linux

For Intel Core i7 5960X Haswell-E Linux testing I originally bought an MSI X99S SLI PLUS motherboard as it was one of the most interesting, lowest-priced boards available at the time of the Intel X99 chipset debut. While I initially ran into some problems, those issues have now been confirmed to be isolated, and with a replacement X99S SLI PLUS motherboard I have been stressing it constantly for the past few weeks on Fedora and Ubuntu. The X99S SLI PLUS has now proven itself to be a reliable motherboard that's still among the least expensive X99 ATX motherboards on the market.

24 October 2014 - 6 Comments
MSI: Update Your BIOS From The Linux Desktop

Now that the MSI X99S SLI PLUS is running great on Linux, I've been working with the company towards some other Linux improvements along with some other interesting Linux hardware reviews to come thanks to our renewed cooperation. One of the items I've been voicing has been regarding better supporting Linux users with regard to a smoother BIOS/UEFI update process. Well, there is a utility they support for updating your MSI motherboard BIOS from the Linux desktop!

7 October 2014 - 38 Comments
The MSI X99S SLI PLUS Is Working & Running Well On Linux

Last month following the launch of Intel's Core i7 5960X Haswell-E platform I ran into a rather odd situation with the first system assembled using the X99 chipset and eight-core, $1000+ processor: the motherboard failed. Coincidentally it happened at the same time as another motherboard failure at a fellow review site. Fortunately, since then, there's been no other major reports of failures with Intel's new platform. MSI has been helpful in this matter and I've since received a new MSI X99S SLI PLUS to confirm there's no fundamental issues with their board.

1 October 2014 - 8 Comments
ASRock Z97 Extreme6

Those looking for an Intel Z97 motherboard that's Linux-friendly and jam-packed with features should checkout the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 as it should cost you less than $170 USD.

26 June 2014 - 31 Comments
Gigabyte Z97-HD3 Intel Z97 Motherboard

For those looking towards purchasing a new motherboard with an Intel Z97 chipset that's compatible with Haswell Refresh and Broadwell processors, the Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 is a nice option and will set you back just over $100 USD.

28 May 2014 - 7 Comments
Gigabyte AM1M-S2H

The Gigabyte AM1M-S2H motherboard is an AMD AM1/FS1b motherboard that's sized for micro-ATX enclosures, offers a fine set of budget features, and costs just over $30 USD.

21 April 2014 - 16 Comments
ASUS AM1I-A: A Mini-ITX Board For Socketed Kabini APUs

For those looking at purchasing hardware for a low-cost socketed Kabini APU system build following our many AMD AM1 Platform tests under Linux that found the low-end hardware to play well with the open-source operating system, one of the motherboards worth considering is the ASUS AM1I-A.

18 April 2014 - 11 Comments
AAEON EMB-BT1: A Linux-Friendly, Mini-ITX, Atom "Bay Trail" Board

For those after a low-cost mini-ITX board for use within an HTPC, SOHO file server, or other low-power situations, AAEON has out an interesting board called the EMB-BT1, or more formally the AAEON EMB-BT1-A10-3825. This mini-ITX motherboard has onboard an Intel Atom E3825 "Bay Trail" SoC for delivering decent performance out of the six Watt SoC and having open-source-friendly graphics under Linux.

8 April 2014 - 19 Comments
Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H AMD A88X

For those in the market for an AMD Kaveri compatible motherboard that is micro-ATX and not too expensive, the Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H is a board worth considering that works well with Linux.

3 March 2014 - 37 Comments
ECS KBN-I + AMD E1-2100 "Kabini" APU

In a very good deal, the ECS KBN-I/2100 mini-ITX motherboard that features an AMD E1-2100 dual-core "Kabini" APU can be found for just over $30 USD. How though is the performance of this ultra low-cost motherboard + APU combination when it costs less than a Raspberry Pi? Here are some benchmarks and the Linux impressions.

19 February 2014 - 41 Comments
ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme

For those in the market for an Intel Z87 Haswell motherboard, the ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme is a great candidate and sells for less than $250 while packing a plethora of features and is mostly compatible with Linux.

15 August 2013 - 9 Comments
Intel DH87RL Haswell H87

For those Linux desktop users in the market for a micro-ATX motherboard for use with the latest-generation Haswell processors, the Intel DH87RL motherboard costs a little more than $100 USD and gets along mostly well with modern Linux distributions.

22 July 2013 - 6 Comments
ECS Z77H2-A2X Ultimate Golden Edition Extreme

Now that a majority of the key Linux performance areas have been covered on Phoronix as it pertains to Intel's Ivy Bridge in dozens of different articles since its April launch date, it's time to say a few words about the "Panther Point" motherboard that was used for many of these Phoronix tests: the ECS Z77H2-A2X Ultimate Golden Edition Extreme.

23 June 2012 - 5 Comments
Intel Preview: Z77 Motherboards Run Well With Linux

Intel introduced their new Z77 "Panther Point" chipset earlier this month in advance of the Ivy Bridge processor launch. Questions have begun to pour in how the line-up of Z77 motherboards are working under Linux. Are there any Linux compatibility problems? Here is my brief statement on the matter for now after having already used two Z77 motherboards for a while under Linux.

15 April 2012 - 18 Comments
Intel Los Lunas 2, Ivy Bridge Details

As the latest chapter of the pre-launch Intel Ivy Bridge story, here's some details on Intel's Ivy Bridge reference motherboard, the Los Lunas 2 with the Panther Point chipset. There is also some cpuinfo data on one of the forthcoming Ivy Bridge models.

6 March 2012 - 7 Comments
Sapphire Pure Platinum A75

While Sapphire Technology is a brand more commonly associated with graphics cards than motherboards, after having great experiences with the Sapphire Pure Black P67 Hydra motherboard, we accepted their offer to look at the Sapphire Pure Platinum A75 motherboard. The Sapphire Pure Platinum A75 is a motherboard for AMD Fusion "Llano" APUs and packs quite a number of features. Here's how the Sapphire Pure Platinum A75 works under Linux.

5 September 2011 - 8 Comments
ASRock Z68 Pro3

We recently reviewed the ASRock H61M/U3S3 motherboard at Phoronix, which was a very nice Intel Sandy Bridge motherboard with integrated graphics for those on a limited budget. While the H61 is great on the low-end side, Intel recently introduced the Z68 chipset. The Z68 is designed to take the features of the P67 chipset and its tuning capabilities while enabling the integrated HD Graphics 3000 support. In this review, we are trying out the ASRock Z68 Pro3 motherboard.

29 July 2011 - 33 Comments
ASRock H61M/U3S3

At Phoronix we have reviewed several different motherboards under Linux since the Sandy Bridge launch with either the P67 or H67 chipsets, but in this review we are looking at one that uses the Intel H61 chipset. The particular motherboard under test is the ASRock H61M/U3S3, which was launched a few months back, but we've been waiting for the Intel Sandy Bridge open-source support under Linux to mature a bit more.

15 July 2011 - 17 Comments
Sapphire Pure Black P67 Hydra

When talking about Sapphire Technology on Phoronix it is usually about their vast selection of Radeon graphics cards for which they are very well known and are one of AMD's premiere AIB partners. Recently, they have also expanded to offer a limited selection of high-end AMD and Intel motherboards. Being from Sapphire, these motherboards are not some budget motherboards with nothing to separate them from its competitors, but are rather well designed and very innovative boards. As the first Sapphire motherboard being reviewed under Linux at Phoronix, we are looking at their interesting Sandy Bridge offering: the Sapphire Pure Black P67 Hydra.

6 May 2011 - 3 Comments
ECS P67H2-A2

Now that the initial Intel Cougar Point chipset problems have been resolved, there is a plethora of motherboards on the market that support the latest Sandy Bridge processors. For enthusiasts, the current high-end SNB-supportive chipset is the Intel P67, of which there are also many different motherboards from various vendors. One of the P67 motherboards that attempts to provide some of the high-end features while at a mainstream price-point is the ECS P67H2-A2. This Elitegroup motherboard retails for less than $200 USD while it ships with two PCI Express x16 slots, USB 3.0, Serial ATA 3.0, and ECS overclocking features.

22 April 2011 - Add A Comment
ASRock P67 Pro3

When it comes to Intel's Sandy Bridge, lately we have been looking a lot at the Linux graphics performance with the H67 chipset as it has been an interesting journey but now at least the OpenGL performance is good and VA-API video acceleration is working. Now that the B3-stepping Cougar Point motherboards are beginning to ship that address the original SATA issues for this chipset that led to a recall, we are back to looking at this magical CPU, the supported motherboards, and its overall Linux performance. In this review we are taking a Linux look at the ASRock P67 Pro3.

14 March 2011 - 5 Comments
ASRock 880G Extreme3 & 890FX Deluxe3

Last week we examined the ATI Radeon HD 4250 integrated graphics performance found with the AMD 880G chipset introduced a few months back. We found the performance of the 880G IGP to be not that different from the higher-end AMD 890GX chipset when using the proprietary Catalyst driver, but today we are looking more at the 880G chipset along with the 890FX chipset as we review the ASRock 880G Extreme3 and ASRock 890FX Deluxe3, respectively. Both low-cost motherboards offer USB 3.0, SATA 3.0, and eSATA3 connectivity, and Turbo UCC overclocking, among other features.

10 August 2010 - 10 Comments
ECS H57H-MUS Black Series

Earlier this year we reviewed an Intel H55 motherboard and found it to perform well under Linux both in terms of compatibility with the latest Linux distributions at the time as well as the overall system performance with our slew of open-source benchmarks. Intel's H57 Chipset was launched at the same time, but with the very few differences between the H55 and H57 chipsets, its Linux support and performance is about the same. Today though we are reviewing the ECS H57H-MUS motherboard to see how this Intel H57 motherboard performs on Linux, which also offers a few extra features like USB 3.0 and Serial ATA 3.0 support.

21 July 2010 - Add A Comment
MSI 890GXM-G65

Earlier this year AMD rolled out the 890GX Chipset with an ATI Radeon HD 4290 integrated graphics processor, support for Serial ATA 3.0 with the SB850 Southbridge, DDR2/DDR3 memory support, and other leading features. About a month ago we reviewed the AMD Athlon II X3 425 processor when coupled with an AMD 890GX + SB850 motherboard and in this review we are taking a closer look at that motherboard under Linux. The motherboard in question is the MSI 890GXM-G65 with USB 3.0 and Serial ATA 6Gb/s support.

4 June 2010 - 15 Comments
Jetway NC84-LF

While Jetway is not one of the most popular brands of motherboards among enthusiasts, they do offer a nice variety of mini ITX motherboards, such as the NC92 IPC and NC96-510-LF motherboards that we have reviewed at Phoronix. Both of these petite motherboards have been built around the Intel Atom processor, but for those looking to find a mini ITX motherboard that can harness a bit more power, there is the Jetway NC84. The Jetway NC84 is what we are testing out today under Linux, which is a mini ITX motherboard that can handle up an AMD Phenom processor, sports an ATI Radeon HD 4200 IGP, and four Serial ATA 2.0 ports capable of RAID 0/1/5/10.

20 April 2010 - 6 Comments

149 motherboards articles published on Phoronix.