Hardware driver compatibility Linux

[DionisiusMayr]

I am making a new build -my second one- and so far I am planning on getting these components:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
Motherboard: Asrock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 gaming 4G Twin Frozr V
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Zx

I will have 2 operational systems installed on it, Windows 7 (mostly for playing games or doing something that I can't do on Linux) and a Linux one (basically to do my daily tasks).

I believe that I will not have any trouble with hardware compatibility or drivers when installing Linux (Debian 8 or Fedora 22) regarding the processor and memory, but I've never used an Asrock mobo, offboard sound cards or offboard gpu on a linux machine before, so I have no idea about the driver issues that I might face regarding these 3 components.

Are there drivers available (that are kinda up-to-date and that allow me to effectively use the hardware) for these components (mobo, sound card and gpu) for Linux Debian 8 and/or Fedora 22?

If not, can someone recommend some other manufacturer that provides this Linux support?

Thank you!

 

[skittle]

All necessary drivers are built into the kernel. Everything will work out of the box on latest Ubuntu/fedora and possibly debian 8 (ships with a slightly older kernel). At most you may want/need to install the latest Nvidia proprietary driver.

 

[DionisiusMayr]

All necessary drivers are built into the kernel. Everything will work out of the box on latest Ubuntu/fedora and possibly debian 8 (ships with a slightly older kernel). At most you may want/need to install the latest Nvidia proprietary driver.

Wow, I had many driver issues with the onboard audio (a RealTek one) on my laptop, so I thought that would be a nightmare to install the other drivers.

 

[skittle]

issues with the onboard audio

Typically a newer kernel will fix most audio and chipset issues. Specifically this commit fixes audio issues on z97/h97 chipsets for kernel 3.15+
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/77f07800cb456bed6e5c345e6e4e83e8eda62437

Of course that is for motherboard sound output.

Upon searching it seems that creative sound card has extremely poor linux support in that it will not work at all. I have not found what chipset it uses so I cannot provide much more information about it.

As an alternative the Asus Xonar series use C-Media chipsets and all work out of the box on Linux.

 

[DionisiusMayr]

issues with the onboard audio

Typically a newer kernel will fix most audio and chipset issues. Specifically this commit fixes audio issues on z97/h97 chipsets for kernel 3.15+
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/77f07800cb456bed6e5c345e6e4e83e8eda62437

Of course that is for motherboard sound output.

Upon searching it seems that creative sound card has extremely poor linux support in that it will not work at all. I have not found what chipset it uses so I cannot provide much more information about it.

As an alternative the Asus Xonar series use C-Media chipsets and all work out of the box on Linux.

=/
Yeah, they don't even seem to divulge the chipset of the Sound Blasters. I couldn't find the chipset for z, zx nor zxr.

I might go with a Xonar DX or maybe a Xonar STX (although it is a little overpriced), since both of them might work with ease on Linux systems.

Thanks a lot dude,
Dionisius