My question is somewhat similar to this questionthis question, but not the same. I want to know if it is reasonable to ask things like "is motherboard X compatible with video card Y and hard drive Z?" I do not know much about hardware, and it would be a nice thing to have someone point out something like "Well, video card Y will not physically fit into motherboard X." In the event that such a thing actually happens.
I think it would be very beneficial so long as such advice is not extremely time intensive given that the person asking the question provides detailed links to information about hardware X, Y, and Z.
The main reason I ask is that I have noticed there are less issues with machines that are not scrapped together, for example commercial laptops seem to work fine running linux operating systems, but not a single desktop that I have used has been able to install and run linux. The resulting hypothesis is that building custom PC's happens to be a much finer art than I could have ever anticipated.