I am aware that there is documentation about compatibility but it is way out dated.

I am also aware that there is a hardware compatibility page on Ubuntu website, but that one is focused on the whole box rather than a single piece of hardware.

I have some experience with Linux OS, and some experience playing Ubuntu Server in a virtual machine, but never worked on a machine that lives in the real internet.

I am building a home server with an Intel H97 chipset motherboard. I have looked at several models and none of them has Linux in the supported OS category.

I have the experience of installing Ubuntu Desktop 14.04 on my 4-years-old lap top, and except for some system errors on start up, there is not too much I can complain about, so I guess I should be fine.

However, this time I am going to install Ubuntu Server 14.04 on a relatively new piece of hardware(I went to http://linux-drivers.org/ but found nothing really helpful). For example the ASUS motherboard has M.2 socket and Intel LAN I218V chip, the Gigabyte motherboard has two LAN chips(Intel LAN WGI217V and ATHEROS AR8161-BL3A-R). So I really want to make sure everything will work.

Usually I would just trust Ubuntu and buy all hardware I need, but basing on my past experience with the Ubuntu Desktop version on my lap top, I am not so convinced. There is an easily noticeable difference: when the system is idle, the fan runs much more frequently and longer under Ubuntu. This leads to my suspicion that generally hardware will have worse support for Ubuntu, which is no surprising at all but enough for me to put this post here. And as far as I know, some Intel CPU features come with software that usually will not run under Linux.

Any help, idea or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!