ThunderboltEX upgrade for mobo?!

[aafron]

I plan to upgrade my system a bit and wish to use thunderbolt in future becuase I have USB 3 already. Asos seem to release a thunderbolt card, but I am not sure if it is available any soon or if it even works with common mainboards or only just a few ASUS mobos?

Anyone has experience with it or any idea!?

 

[greenhawk]

on what I have read about thunderblot, as long as you have a spare pci-e x4 slot or better it should have the needed bandwidth to run. Byond that, no idea as even hardware reviews for it appear limited.

 

[aafron]

Right, that's how I understood this but I am not quiet sure because ASUS somehow indicates mobos which are alleged to support the card, but I wonder how they decided that these and no other mobos work. It has also simply a DispalyPort where it gets the signal from.

I think it might be like the U3S6 cards from ASUS, which gets you USB 3.0 and SATA 6. But before I buy it, I'd rather check if anyone knows anything or has tested! If you find anything, please report =O

 

[ericloewe]

Asus' upgrade card probably only works with their motherboards. For some reason (which is pretty much unknown), the card needs (at least so they say) to be connected to a special header on the mobo.

Theoretically though, all a card needs is x4 PCI-e 2.0 (The PCH's lanes) and a DisplayPort signal (Existing external DP)

 

[aafron]

The Headerpin suppose to activate some BIOS functions and is not a must it seems. I got already a U3S6 Card in my PC and it works like a charm, though not compatible if I believe ASUS. ^^

Do I have to order and just see if it works?!...

 

[ericloewe]

I'd wait to see if anyone tries it first. The U3S6 is just a simple controller card, so it's normal that it works everywhere. You might have weird issues with Thunderbolt, even if it works sometimes, because of the extra header (or lack thereof).

tl;dr Try googling for reviews

 

[aafron]

Just googeld, only a preview from VR-Zone and a news from Anandtech. So not much out yet. I think I have to wait until there is more coming out. Thanks for the help in meantime guys^^

 

[Dahak]

From what I understand from the previews, and there was anand video with an asus guy, cant find the link at the moment, but the way the asus card works, is it plugs into a x4 pcie slot and the is a cable going from the card to the motherboard for the DisplayPort signal. the header on the board is called TB_(something) not sure if it would work without that cable

 

[aafron]

From what I have read now it says that the TB_Header is only for BIOS functions from ASUS. And the DispalyPort Cable goes to the VGA to transmitt the signal. It kind of makes sense this way. But it is not clear that the 1 source I found have even tested it w/o the TB_Header... The question remains for now ^^

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Seems like it would be easy to just buy a board with USB native or an add-on card.