Building a *nix desktop/server, questions about hardware support

[TBSN]

I'm replacing my PC finally, but I thought my current Intel C2D would still make a good linux pc/server which I've been meaning to build anyway.

I'd like to replace the GPU with a mid-range card that uses lower power than my current one. Are there any cards that work well with Linux driver-wise or are they all fine? (It's been a while since I used linux so I don't know the state of driver support, etc)

Is BIOS support being dropped any time soon? If so I might just switch to a newer CPU/motherboard, but I'd rather use what I have.

There are marvel yukon and realtec ethernet controllers on the motherboard, are either of those supported well in Linux?

Thanks for your help. I'm trying to put the computer together to use low power, and have the best linux hardware support I can so I don't have to mess with it too much just to get it all working.

 

[rogerdv]

My advice is to use some nvidia card. You will have advantage of VDPAU video decoding and perhaps less problems (catalyst drivers have the nasty habit of surprising you with some weird bug that prevents some shader from working correctly). Dont know about yukon, but Realtek has been well supported for years.

 

[TBSN]

Ok thanks for the help, I've got an AMD radeon in there now but i'll look for a nvidia card when I'm setting it up for linux.

 

[lxskllr]

The easiest way to tell is just boot up some GNU/Linux, and see what works. Since you already have the hardware, it's easy enough. Make a bootable USB to test it out.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah I also recommend an Nvidia card and simply download their drivers/kernel module from Nvidia's website. While AMD's drivers are open source, Nvidia's simply work.

 

[bbhaag]

I think AMD has dropped support for Radeon4xxx or older cards. My laptop running Mint17 uses a 3100 series gpu and I have to use the open source driver because the new driver package from AMD doesn't support it.