Desktop PC with Linux as OS

[daanav]

Hey guys and girls,

I am planning to build a PC with Linux (distro : Ubuntu) as my operating system.
Just by deciding this I have opened a Pandora's Box of compatibility issues.
I have spent quite some time looking for a websites where compatibility would be listed, but did not find anything very useful.
So I need help from everyone here.

1. Processor : I have already kind of made up my mind on Intel i7 8700 (not K). I was thinking Ryzen but I don't know the compatibility with Linux.
2. Motherboard : I have no clue how to go about this.
3. GPU : decided on Gtx 1080

These are the main thing I want to decide on first. What do you all think about it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Granular]

Ubuntu 18.04 (relased yesterday) comes with kernel 4.15, which works well with both Kaby Lake and Ryzen. Ryzen Threadripper just lacks accurate temperature reporting to the OS, I think.

As for motherboard compatibility, you might want to check out Level 1 Tech's motherboard reviews, they always include notes about Linux compatibility.

[IAmAndre]

I've built 3 PC's, all using Linux and never worried about compatibility issues. The only I checked was the WiFi card, but other than that, you should be fine.

[SamuraiSalesman]

Linux will run pretty much with any chip (Ryzen and Intel), as long as you have an updated BIOS and the latest distribution of the OS. What you should be more concerned about is the GPU; AMD/Radeon software is traditionally open source, so optimization and driver support for Linux is traditionally better on these than Nvidia's hardware. Linux is actually infamous for not playing nice with Nvidia GPUs since Nvidia is extremely jealous of its software and seldom works with others on improving drivers rather than do it themselves and they never work on Linux. If you insist on getting the GTX 1080, make sure that there is proper support for the card (make and model) for the distro you are using.

[daanav]

Thans for the replies guys. 

@SamuraiSalesman I had selected Nvidia because after doing research on many forums for Linux, I mostly got the idea that Nvidia is supported more as compared to Amd. I got this reply on almost all the forums I checked. Please do correct me if I am wrong.

[SamuraiSalesman]

I assume you are using the GPUs for productivity tasks instead of games. In games, Nvidia hardware tends to trail behind AMD in performance since it lacks many of the software integration benefits baked into Windows for the same. However, when it comes to things besides games, Nvidia runs much more stable since the performance of the GPU is limited by the specific application/program that is running and how it was built to run specific hardware. Since Nvidia cards are more prevalent, developers tend to prioritize support for it over AMD. If you're not running emulation software or something like WINE then Nvidia will play quite nice, as long as it doesn't involve anything related to DirectX libraries or the such.