[dennisw]

Considering it may take 3 or 4 years for Linux-friendly platforms to return I’d invest in a brand with longer life expectancy. By the time the board dies the old chipsets may be off the market and you’ll have to pay a premium to get a replacement board to work with the AMD CPU. That’s what happened to me when my X58 Gigabyte heated up. Had to buy an 18-month old Asus Sabertooth X58 to support my I7 CPU and that board was only available from 3rd echelon sellers at a significant markup since Intel had moved on to a newer I7 architecture/socket. That’s what I call getting stuck in a platform. CPU, board and RAM all have to be upgraded just because a deficiency or failure in one component.

Why not buy your ideal motherboard and build your sysytem. Then when you see the chipset and CPU socket being replaced and sidelined......this is when you can buy a backup motherboard (cheap) to replace and extend life.
Funny how buying a replacement motherboard can be torture and its overpriced........ But not so for a replacement CPU. Ebay is full of used reliable CPUs. CPUs don't fail but motherboards do. Years ago I cooked a few CPUs but it did not harm them.

[Justa]

The trick is getting the CPU-compatible backup motherboard before stocks are depleted and prices rise. This is already the case with the MSI A88X-G45 motherboard.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00IC5XZ98/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

It sold out of most places within a week of the news coming out about future AMD chipsets being MS-only compatible. Those who had some left jacked up the price. Seems lots of people had the idea of upgrading while they could.

I may have to go with one of those Used boards. That’s what my current overpriced Sabertooth is -a Used board which cost $100 more than a new one when they were out.