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.

Supermicro Hyper SuperServer SYS-221H-TNR / X13DEM Working Well For Dual Socket Xeon Max
Supermicro Hyper SuperServer SYS-221H-TNR / X13DEM Working Well For Dual Socket Xeon Max

With the Intel Xeon Max testing at Phoronix that's been ongoing so far for the past month on Phoronix has all been done within the Supermicro Hyper SuperServer SYS-221H-TNR rackmount server. This 2U dual socket platform for 4th Gen Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" processors has been working out well and provides a robust feature set while working out well for all of my Linux testing thus far.

17 July 2023 - 3 Comments
AMD's EPYC 9004 "Genoa" Reference Board Runs The Open-Source OpenBMC
AMD's EPYC 9004 "Genoa" Reference Board Runs The Open-Source OpenBMC

For as exciting and performant as AMD 4th Gen EPYC "Genoa" series processors are with up to 96 cores, AVX-512, and the other impressive Zen 4 enhancements, there was something else subtle that got me really excited with Genoa... AMD's "Titanite" reference board for Genoa is running the open-source, Linux-powered OpenBMC!

10 November 2022 - 22 Comments
ASRock X670E PG Lightning - Nice AMD Zen 4 Motherboard For $250 USD
ASRock X670E PG Lightning - Nice AMD Zen 4 Motherboard For $250 USD

When it comes to new AMD AM5 motherboards featuring an X670 series chipset, one of the cheapest options right now is the ASRock X670E PG Lightning that retails for around $249 USD. I picked up one of these motherboards at launch and has been working out well on Linux for those wanting to build a cost-minded AMD Zen 4 desktop system.

8 November 2022 - 17 Comments
A Dream Come True: Running Coreboot On A Modern, Retail Desktop Motherboard

Over the many years of covering Coreboot (going back to when it was called LinuxBIOS!) on Phoronix the selection of supported motherboards has been rather unfortunate especially over the last decade. If wanting to run Coreboot on a system today it basically means running a Google Chromebook, using an outdated server motherboard or old Lenovo ThinkPad that has seen a Coreboot port, or out of reach to most individuals are various server motherboards that are reference platforms or board designs from hyperscalers. But over the past several months the folks at the 3mdeb consulting firm have carried out a terrific feat: porting their "Dasharo" downstream of Coreboot to a modern and readily available Intel desktop motherboard. I've been trying this out and it has worked out surprisingly well. Here are my experiences and benchmarks of Coreboot/Dasharo on this Intel Alder Lake motherboard.

30 June 2022 - 60 Comments
ASRock Rack's ROME2D16-2T Makes For A Great EPYC Server Board
ASRock Rack's ROME2D16-2T Makes For A Great EPYC Server Board

For those looking to assemble your own AMD EPYC 7002/7003 series 2P server or workstation, the ASRock Rack ROME2D16-2T we have been testing out for the past quarter and it's been holding up well across our daily benchmarking and other Linux and BSD tasks. The board has been working out very well and is currently available from retailers like NewEgg.

22 November 2021 - 10 Comments
AMD EPYC 7003 Series Working Out Well With The Supermicro H12SSL-i
AMD EPYC 7003 Series Working Out Well With The Supermicro H12SSL-i

Following last month's launch of the AMD EPYC 7003 "Milan" series prominent motherboard vendors have been fairly quick to enable Milan support for capable motherboards originally launched for the prior EPYC 7002 "Rome" processors. For those in the market for a 1P ATX motherboard that will work with these exciting new server processors, the Supermicro H12SSL-i is a nice entry-level motherboard that gets the job done and with its BIOS v2.0 release is working well for the new Zen 3 server CPUs.

9 April 2021 - 10 Comments
SiFive Is Launching The Most Compelling RISC-V Development Board Yet
SiFive Is Launching The Most Compelling RISC-V Development Board Yet

If you've been waiting to port your software to RISC-V until having a decent RISC-V system where you can develop on-host, wanting to experiment with the libre processor architecture or even use it as a daily desktop system, or just wanting a Linux system that's not x86_64 / ARM / POWER, SiFive today is announcing a new board today that is the most promising yet. The SiFive HiFive Unmatched is the best RISC-V development board we've seen to date and the closest to being the first "RISC-V PC" for Linux use.

29 October 2020 - 69 Comments
ASRock Rack EPYCD8-2T Makes For A Great Linux/BSD EPYC Workstation - 7-Way OS AMD 7351P Benchmarks
ASRock Rack EPYCD8-2T Makes For A Great Linux/BSD EPYC Workstation - 7-Way OS AMD 7351P Benchmarks

If you are looking to assemble an AMD EPYC workstation, a great ATX motherboard up for the task is the ASRock Rack EPYCD8-2T that accommodates a single EPYC processor, eight SATA 3.0 ports (including SAS HD), dual M.2 PCIe slots, dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports,and four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots all within ATX's 12 x 9.6-inch footprint. This motherboard has been running well not only with various Linux distributions but also DragonFlyBSD and FreeBSD.

28 February 2019 - 28 Comments
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Linux Performance Boosted By Updated BIOS/AGESA
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Linux Performance Boosted By Updated BIOS/AGESA

With last week's initial launch-day Linux benchmarks of the Ryzen 5 2600X / Ryzen 7 2700X some found the Linux performance to be lower than Windows. While the root cause is undetermined, a BIOS/AGESA update does appear to help the Linux performance significantly at least with the motherboard where I've been doing most of my tests with the Ryzen 7 2700X. Here are the latest benchmark numbers.

24 April 2018 - 46 Comments
Gigabyte MZ31-AR0: EPYC Motherboard With Dual 10Gb/s LAN, 16 SATA Ports, Seven PCI-E Slots
Gigabyte MZ31-AR0: EPYC Motherboard With Dual 10Gb/s LAN, 16 SATA Ports, Seven PCI-E Slots

When it comes to our AMD EPYC Linux testing the past number of months, one of the most common test requests was to test the Gigabyte MZ31-AR0 motherboard, which is more workstation oriented than traditional server with plenty of PCI Express slots for suiting multiple graphics cards, etc. Over the past month I have been testing out this single-socket AMD EPYC motherboard and overall it has worked out fairly well.

5 April 2018 - 32 Comments
Intel Atom C3950 + Tyan Tempest S3227
Intel Atom C3950 + Tyan Tempest S3227

The past few weeks I've had the pleasure of testing the Tyan Tempest S32272NR-C950 motherboard with Atom C3950 "Denverton" processor. Yes, it's been a real pleasure as it's been a few years since last touching an Atom system and this current combination allows for a mighty competent configuration with the C3950 server processor featuring 16 physical cores (no HT) running at a 1.7GHz base frequency and 2.2GHz turbo frequency all while having a 24 Watt TDP.

2 February 2018 - 50 Comments
ASUS PRIME Z370-A Running Great On Linux
ASUS PRIME Z370-A Running Great On Linux

For those looking at assembling a new system around Intel's 8th Gen Core "Coffee Lake" CPUs, the motherboard I've been conducting most of my Linux tests from has been the ASUS PRIME Z370-A. A few weeks of use with this motherboard, I'm happy with this Intel Z370 motherboard.

25 October 2017 - 17 Comments
Intel Xeon Silver 4108 + Tyan Tempest HX S7100
Intel Xeon Silver 4108 + Tyan Tempest HX S7100

One of the latest server platforms under our bombardment of Linux benchmarks recently has been the Tyan Tempest HX S7100 (S7100AG2NR) motherboard which at the moment is paired with an Intel Xeon Silver 4108 processor. This ~$430 Xeon Scalable processor has eight cores plus Hyper Threading to yield 16 threads, a low 1.8GHz base frequency but with 3.0GHz turbo, 11MB L3 cache, six-channel memory support, AVX-512 capabilities, and has a 85 Watt TDP.

13 October 2017 - 9 Comments
ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac: Mini-ITX Motherboard With Dual NICs, WiFi, Triple Display For ~$130 USD
ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac: Mini-ITX Motherboard With Dual NICs, WiFi, Triple Display For ~$130 USD

If you are looking to build a small HTPC system, NAS / network device, or other petite system, the ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac is a bargain motherboard for Intel's new Coffee Lake LGA-1151 processors. This brand new motherboard retails for around $130 USD while offers dual Gigabit NICs, dual HDMI + DisplayPort, 820.11ac WiFI, 6 x SATA 3.0 ports, and a M.2 slot all within a mini-ITX form factor.

12 October 2017 - 42 Comments
ASRock AB350 Pro4: A Decent, Linux-Friendly Ryzen Motherboard For As Low As $69 USD

Two weeks back I picked up the ASRock AB350 Pro4 for a low-end AMD Ryzen motherboard for use with some of the Ryzen 3 CPUs and it's been working out well for those wanting a Ryzen Linux system and not looking to spend much money. With it working out well for my purposes and currently being on sale, I figured I'd pass along this quick recommendation for those wanting to assemble a budget Ryzen Linux system.

22 August 2017 - 32 Comments
Gigabyte AB350N-GAMING WiFi: An Ideal Mini-ITX Ryzen Motherboard For Linux

For those drawn by the performance of AMD's Ryzen processors for its performance/value and thinking about building a Kodi/HTPC media box for the living room, a Steam Linux gaming PC / DIY Steam Box, or just want a small form factor PC, Gigabyte's AB350N-GAMING WiFi is a mini-ITX motherboard that plays fine with Linux and offers a lot of functionality for its small size.

11 August 2017 - 39 Comments
ASUS PRIME Z270-P Kabylake Motherboard Works Fine On Linux

For those looking to purchase a newer Intel Z270 motherboard for use with the new Kabylake processors, the ASUS PRIME Z270-P is what I've been using the past two weeks for my initial Kabylake benchmarking. So far it's been working out great and haven't run into any issues.

24 January 2017 - 10 Comments
MSI X99A RAIDER Plays Fine With Linux

The MSI X99A RAIDER is a sub-$200 LGA-2011 v3 motherboard. I've been using it for almost two months now on one of the daily Linux benchmarking systems and it's been running great.

16 January 2017 - 9 Comments
MSI X99A Workstation Motherboard Runs Nicely On Linux

The past few weeks I've been testing out the MSI X99A Workstation motherboard courtesy of MSI Computer and it's been working out very well across a spectrum of open-source Linux (as well as BSD) use-cases for those in need of a LGA-2011 v3 motherboard.

19 September 2016 - 9 Comments
MSI B150M Mortar: A Budget Skylake Motherboard For Linux Users

With having my first Skylake motherboard fail on me recently, a sub-$60 Gigabyte H110 motherboard, for its replacement I decided to spend a few bucks more and ended up going for a nicer MSI Skylake motherboard. For those curious, here are a few words I wanted to share this weekend about my experience so far with the MSI B150M Mortar.

10 April 2016 - 40 Comments
Gigabyte GA-H110M-A: A Sub-$60 Intel Skylake Motherboard

When recently buying the Intel Pentium G4400, a ~$60 Skylake dual-core processor, for Linux testing I was also looking for a Skylake motherboard that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. The motherboard I ended up pairing for this Pentium G4400 in the test lab was the Gigabyte GA-H110M-A, a micro-ATX board using Intel's H110 chipset.

29 November 2015 - 5 Comments
MSI Z170A GAMING PRO: A Nice Board For Building A Skylake Linux System

Since I started delivering my Skylake Linux tests back in August, I've received many inquiries from Phoronix readers curious about what motherboard I've been using, etc. Long story short, all of my initial Intel Skylake Linux testing has been done with the MSI Z170A GAMING PRO motherboard, which has been working out well.

27 September 2015 - 9 Comments

149 motherboards articles published on Phoronix.