Not sure if to post this on the motherboard section or here. Looking for a new motherboard for my home Linux system (casual use and leisure). Settling on a B550 and paring it with a 5800X (I’m not waiting for the new 3d cache stuff since my current system is dead and this is to replace it). I have three options that seem to have all I need and want. A bit of a downgrade feature wise from my current X370 (Aorus GAMING K7), but I’m definitely not paying X570 prices.
Aorus B550 PRO AX
Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING WIFI
MSI MPG B550 GAMING CARBON WIFI
Those three seem to be the best that are available in my location. They all have limitations that my X370 does not have, but I’m willing to work around them.
OS is Kubuntu 21.10. Anyone has had any experience with the above motherboards in Linux?
I’m interested mainly in out of the box compatibility (LAN and onboard audio). Audio I assume works since those boards use the same codec as my X370. But what about the LAN chip?
Also, any particular recommendation or something to point out Linux wise? Or just in general from a pure hardware perspective. Never had an MSI board before (only Asus and Gigabyte).
One other thing I really need is good fan control from the UEFI, since I have a few high powered fans that I need to set on fan curves (and due to there being no fan control or sensor support for these boards in Linux land). Gigabyte has rather good fan controls in it’s UEFI, but what about ASUS and MSI?
If you intend to do VFIO passthrough, X570 is less headache for that.
People say Intel chips for LAN and WiFi are less problematic on Linux systems. Ive never had issues on Realtek LAN, but on laptops, Realtek WiFi can be hit or miss, i think depending on the chipset model within the unit.
Your mobo choices seem decent, I dont think you’ll have problems with those. I would have bought Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING WIFI personally but I decided I may do VFIO in the future. I think it has Intel LAN and Wifi. You should have less issues with these.
No vfio usage. I run a Windows 10 VM for work (office stuff like spreadsheets), but that’s about it when it comes to virtualization needs.
What I do need are 2 M.2 slots, at least 4 workable SATA ports and more than 6 rear USB ports in the I/O plate. The Asus disables 2 SATA ports when the second M.2 is in use, but I guess I can work around that (was planning on getting more SATA devices but that is more of a want than a need). The Aorus disables the bottom most PCIE slot when using more than 4 SATA ports (would be nice to have 2 PCIE expansion slots). The MSI seems to be more sensible about this and leaves all SATA ports untouched while only disabling the two PCIE slots that would get covered by my GPU, and still leave two PCIE slots free for expansion cards. Problem is the lower quality sound codec and I have never used MSI boards before.
The X370 still works, I think. The CPU very likely got busted (all points to that anyway) but compatible CPUs here are either sold out or the same prize as 5xxx ones. Hence why I opted to just get a new board and newer CPU.
Ended up with the B550 Pro. Saved a few going with the V2 instead (no WIFI). Everything is fine, it seems. Two issues (edit 3):
No RGB controls in BIOS, just on/off switch. My previous Gaming K7 had some simple RGB controls in BIOS. Common Gigabyte. Fix = turn off RGB
Fan control in BIOS seems to be broken somewhat. I can set curves for each fan, but as soon as I load into my OS (Kubuntu) the motherboard seems to totally ignore the fan curves I set up and just uses the stock fan curve (which is really aggressive). This seems to only happen with fans that are set to follow CPU temperatures. Setting any other temperature source and the fan curve works as intended.
Sleep seems to be broken. Attempting to put the system to sleep makes the system power down, but half a second latter it wakes back up.