Hi,
I have built a new system. In case others are considering the same hardware for use with a Linux system, I will share my results:
The new system components are:
Asus Z97-A motherboard
Intel core i3-4370 processor
Corsair 16GB (2x8) RAM (CMZ16GX3M2A1866C9) RAM
Western Digital 500GB SATA drive
Asus DVD burner
I did not at this time install a separate graphics card.
Initially, only 8GB of RAM was recognized by the UEFI bios. To get the full 16GB fo RAM to be recognized, I ran the EZ Tuning Wizard whch enabled the XMP memory profile.
I installed Mageia 5 Beta 1 from the live KDE disk.
So far everything seems to work that I have tested.