New Intel Gen 7 for Desktop now available - Apollo/TB3 Capatible Motherboards?

Hi Gannon

Following the UAD announcement of Apollo support for Windows 10 Thunderbolt a few months ago the Apollo Thunderbolt Windows Compatibility page has listed a number of motherboards that are compatible based on Intel Gen 6 Hardware. The new Intel Gen 7 (Kaby Lake) processors and Z270 motherboards are now released. Could you please advise compatibility with Apollo. I assume there will be quite a few UAD users starting to build new PCs with TB3 after the Nov announcement and it would be good to know which builds are compatible.

Please note that in Australia I do not seem to be able to even buy (for example) the Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH Motherboard. It is either not listed or discontinued in stores. The Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 is still available but it does not have TB3.

The Gigabyte site is now advertising new Z270 motherboards. From the specs it appears that the Gigabyte GA-Z270X-UD5 has support for TB3 with an Intel Controller (only 1 USB-C connector though) and so may be a suitable update from the recommended Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH.

It would be great if UAD could look at this ASAP. UAD may have already started testing as the Intel release date has been known for some time. I would like to build based on UAD recommendations and test results to reduce chances of wasting time and money.

Cheers Simon

Hello,

Some folks here have got UAD Apollo to work with thunderbolt II cards - One motherboard I've got is Asus Z97-AR with Asus EX II Dual Thunderbolt card - The system was recognized and worked with Apollo Twin / Apollo 8 but not with combined mode - [forgot the UAD name for this]

Gigabyte have Designare motherboard X99 thunderbolt 3 all on one board.

Asus motherboards X99 also have compatible thunderbolt 3 motherboards but an expansion card is needed as well as Windows 10!!!

http://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessory/ThunderboltEX_II/
ThunderboltEX II/DUAL | Motherboard Accessory | ASUS Global

ThunderboltEX 3 | Motherboard Accessory | ASUS Global ***

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 2011-3 - GA-X99P-SLI (rev. 1.0)
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 2011-3 - GA-X99-Designare EX (rev. 1.0)



Have a good read and compare -

Thunderbolt 3 is quicker than thunderbolt 2 - On my Z97-AR I've got the Dual TH 2 card

X99 has lots of options with Asus - or a Gigabyte would be the way to go but Asus seem to have more options for thunderbolt 3 albeit with the need to buy a card as well. I do know that the Asus X99 Deluxe II comes complete with the TH3 card but check this out for yourself!!!

If you fancy a Sabertooth X99 then buy a separate TH 3 card from Ebay or Amazon or some other place

If Z170 is your preferred choice then Asus have 7 options for mobo's compatible with TH3

If you wish to have Gigabyte then get a Designare board

FWIW someone here on the forum got an Asus Z87 Pro or similar socket 1150 motherboard to work with Apollo and TH 2 -

I'm no expert and it's a ball ache to search for things and compatibility etc.... especially when UAD have only just started to support the Windows platform.

The Gigabyte boards are rev 1.0

Have a good look and hope this helps!

Hello,

Some folks here have got UAD Apollo to work with thunderbolt II cards - One motherboard I've got is Asus Z97-AR with Asus EX II Dual Thunderbolt card - The system was recognized and worked with Apollo Twin / Apollo 8 but not with combined mode - [forgot the UAD name for this]

Gigabyte have Designare motherboard X99 thunderbolt 3 all on one board.

Asus motherboards X99 also have compatible thunderbolt 3 motherboards but an expansion card is needed as well as Windows 10!!!

ThunderboltEX II | Motherboard Accessory | ASUS Global
ThunderboltEX II/DUAL | Motherboard Accessory | ASUS Global

ThunderboltEX 3 | Motherboard Accessory | ASUS Global ***

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 2011-3 - GA-X99P-SLI (rev. 1.0)
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 2011-3 - GA-X99-Designare EX (rev. 1.0)



Have a good read and compare -

Thunderbolt 3 is quicker than thunderbolt 2 - On my Z97-AR I've got the Dual TH 2 card

X99 has lots of options with Asus - or a Gigabyte would be the way to go but Asus seem to have more options for thunderbolt 3 albeit with the need to buy a card as well. I do know that the Asus X99 Deluxe II comes complete with the TH3 card but check this out for yourself!!!

If you fancy a Sabertooth X99 then buy a separate TH 3 card from Ebay or Amazon or some other place

If Z170 is your preferred choice then Asus have 7 options for mobo's compatible with TH3

If you wish to have Gigabyte then get a Designare board

FWIW someone here on the forum got an Asus Z87 Pro or similar socket 1150 motherboard to work with Apollo and TH 2 -

I'm no expert and it's a ball ache to search for things and compatibility etc.... especially when UAD have only just started to support the Windows platform.

The Gigabyte boards are rev 1.0

Have a good look and hope this helps!

Hi Fraz

Thanks for your post. This is a new build for me so I could consider the X99 rather than the Skylake/Kaby Lake path. It would be more grunty. I saw the Gigabyte Designare motherboards and they state "Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 Certified X99 Motherboard" so they will be using the Intel TB3 controller. I was hoping that UAD would test and then update their website for the new round of hardware both for the new Gen 7 Z270/Kaby Lake hardware and new boards like Designare for X99. I know that users have posted success stories with External Cards such as the new Asus ThunderboltEX 3 but it would be helpful if these could be officially endorsed as well. I can understand UAD reluctance to test etc but if just a few of the more obvious choices could be confirmed that would be helpful.

Cheers Simon

Hey! Have someone already tried new Z270 motherboard and kaby lake processor with Apollo? I would like to buy a new computer in a few days and can't find any information about compatibility. After testing apollo twin duo with laptops like MSI ghost pro, Asus Rog, even Dell XPS 9550 with apple thunderbolt adapter and realising it has no sense because of incompatibility (I know it isn't supported but when I was in China there wasn't a chance to find startech or kanex adapter) I have to think about desktop PC. I don't want to buy older Z170 stuff

Sent from my X9076 using Tapatalk

I have a silverface Apollo running on TB2. In essence, it is firewire running on a TB2 but it works.

What is your your motherboard and processor name?

Sent from my X9076 using Tapatalk

Hopefully UAD will do testing on the new z270 chipset motherboards and the built in thunderbolt 3.

I am also interested in the new kaby lake because they drastically increased the ability to quickly encode 4k video.

I assume UAudio will not have done testing on these motherboards for apollo compatibility for quite some time, as they have just been released.

I will patiently wait for Uaudio to certify the new motherboards for kaby lake chips

It's a shame that it's really hard to find compatible computer. I don't have a lot of time for thinking about what to buy so I would like to ask about your opinion. Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard is on the UAD compatibility list... so maybe it's worth a try to buy GIGABYTE GA-Z270X-UD5 with i& 7700K? I think this motherboard is simillar and there wasn't big changes in technology, chipsets etc. What do you think?
Thank you in advance

Hi,
I'm using the ASUS Z270-A Motherboard with the T/boltEX3 card plugged into the thunderbolt header on the board as the Z170 was getting hard to source.

I had a company called SCAN in the UK build it for me and they apparently work in close liaison with Universal Audio UK, The techy I was dealing with said they were 'onsite' with UA a few weeks ago to discuss compatibility, and from what I can tell SCAN assist them with the testing.

I've had my system running a couple of weeks now and apart from learning a different power on sequence in order for the Apollo Twin MKII to work properly* it seems to be working just fine.

* I have to recycle the MKII after I have launched Console 2 in order to get the Monitor volume GUI to work the led's on the hardware!

icu81b4 said:

Hi,
I'm using the ASUS Z270-A Motherboard with the T/boltEX3 card plugged into the thunderbolt header on the board as the Z170 was getting hard to source.

I had a company called SCAN in the UK build it for me and they apparently work in close liaison with Universal Audio UK, The techy I was dealing with said they were 'onsite' with UA a few weeks ago to discuss compatibility, and from what I can tell SCAN assist them with the testing.

I've had my system running a couple of weeks now and apart from learning a different power on sequence in order for the Apollo Twin MKII to work properly* it seems to be working just fine.

* I have to recycle the MKII after I have launched Console 2 in order to get the Monitor volume GUI to work the led's on the hardware!

Click to expand...

Thank you for this information. Many people including myself are wanting to build a Kaby Lake i7700 Z270 chip set system. Glad to know you have one working.

I'm also looking at the Gigabyte z270x-ud5 with the 7700k. I might also get one of the Gigabyte z270 gaming boards which are now called Aorus. I wish UA would test some of these. That being said, these Gigabyte boards have on board TB3 controllers and should work.

Hi

I am probably going with an Asus motherboard with TB support (Z270 or X99) and the Asus ThunderboltEX 3 card for a new build. In Australia Gigabyte does not distribute all products and the Gigabyte GA-Z270X-UD5 is not available here only the GA-Z270X-Gaming7. I do not want to get a Gaming board and I have always used Asus.

Is there any downside to going with the Asus (Z270 or X99) and the Asus ThunderboltEX 3 card option rather than the official Gigabyte TB onboard option? I know there might be a bit of messing around to get it up and running but I am more concerned about day to day issues e.g. like if devices need to be powered on in a certain order, stability etc.

Your feedback would be appreciated

Cheers Simon

ham2065 said:

Hi

I am probably going with an Asus motherboard with TB support (Z270 or X99) and the Asus ThunderboltEX 3 card for a new build. In Australia Gigabyte does not distribute all products and the Gigabyte GA-Z270X-UD5 is not available here only the GA-Z270X-Gaming7. I do not want to get a Gaming board and I have always used Asus.

Is there any downside to going with the Asus (Z270 or X99) and the Asus ThunderboltEX 3 card option rather than the official Gigabyte TB onboard option? I know there might be a bit of messing around to get it up and running but I am more concerned about day to day issues e.g. like if devices need to be powered on in a certain order, stability etc.

Your feedback would be appreciated

Cheers Simon

Click to expand...

Simon,

I'm a long time Asus fan, and would suggest that the X99 or Z270 "should" work fine. I do use a Gigabyte for the UAD system, but only because I set it up the first week that UAD announced Windows support, and there was little experience available.

I can confirm that a Z170 Asus board works fine with the EX3, but I haven't tried the X99 or Z270. I now don't think that there is much magic involved with Asus TB3 solutions, as long as you install the EX3 card drivers.

I can also comment as an Asus loyalist, that the Gigabyte board has worked flawlessly. If the Gigabyte board had any issues, it would have been swiftly replaced by the Asus Z170 or an X99.

Good luck.

Hi newyankee, Thank you for all your posts. It seems you really know what's all about for that TB3 and Windows theme.

I intend to buy maybe also An Ausus X99 Deluxe II rr maybe a Gigabyte Board. In my decision I am pretty limited cause the Board need to be Socket 2011 v3.
Most of the capable Boards i came arround are LGA1151.
Many MB'S are difficult to get here in Switzerland but the ASUS X99 Deluxe II (LGA 2011-v3, Intel X99, ATX) would be available here
My PC builder ordered before the X99-E which not supports Thunderbolt 3. It only has an USB-C Port but don't support 's the TB* protokoll. I'm pretty confused by now.

Do you know if i could plug the StarTech TB3 Adapter directly on the Board on the USB-C Port or do you use a TB optional card? Problem is i have not enough space for it because its quite full in the case (2 x UAD PCIE Cards & 2 x Graficcard). I need a Motherboard which is capable for direct plug...

Your Feedback would worth me A Million

Greetings Laurent