Windows Thunderbolt users, Please state what Motherboard / Card you use.

I

icu81b4

Member
All you guys using Apollo Thunderbolt with Windows please could you list ...

1. What Motherboard you are using? (ie:- ASUS Z170-Premium)

2. Are you using the port directly on the edge of the motherboard or via an expansion card? (ie: plugged directly into a Thunderbolt port or USB/c with cable adaptor)

3. If you are using an expansion card - which card? (ie: ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 )

4. Does it work well?

The reason I'm asking is that UA Supports states ...

2016 and later systems that have a 6th-generation Intel Skylake processor (or greater), and a built-in Thunderbolt 3 (Alpine Ridge) controller with a USB-C port, combined with a qualified Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt adapter, are expected to be compatible.

and they advise you to look at the Thunderbolt site to chose which MB to use (https://thunderbolttechnology.net/) , but this site doesn't seem to be up to date as some of the MB's listed are now 'End of Life' ( ie: ASUS Z170-Premium) and the newer versions of MB Asus PRIME Z270-K don't have the Thunderbolt header onboard as preferred by UA.

this information would help me a lot.

Thanks
Al.
 
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S

see venus

Active Member
Gigabyte Z170x UD5 TH. Works in dual boot mode with both Win10 and Hackintosh Sierra. A bit of a chore to hunt down though...
 
I

icu81b4

Member
see venus said:
Gigabyte Z170x UD5 TH. Works in dual boot mode with both Win10 and Hackintosh Sierra. A bit of a chore to hunt down though...
Click to expand...
Ah lucky you ... this is one of the three recommended ...

Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 Motherboard

All 'End of Life' now and as you say getting hard to find. I'm guessing you have a choice with this board to either plug in an adapter straight into the board OR you could use the Tb3 EX card.

Al.
 
Dave Boulden

Dave Boulden

Member
Also Gigabyte Z170x UD5 TH here with a Startech TB3>TB2 adaptor. Has run rock solid since the install. As a side-note, I swapped out my previous Z97-K motherboard without reinstalling Win10, just uninstalled the motherboard & graphics card specific drivers before swapping the board... upon switch on with the new board in situ, Windows simply started looking for new drivers and no conflicts occurred.
 
W

Wepsta

New Member
ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 card with startech adapter works great on X99-A II. I think all asus boards with the TB header connection are compatible with this card...
 
I

icu81b4

Member
Wepsta said:
ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 card with startech adapter works great on X99-A II. I think all asus boards with the TB header connection are compatible with this card...
Click to expand...
Good to know, I think you're right about the Tb header on the MB card, although SCAN (a British firm who seem to know a lot about Pro-Audio setups) are now using the newer Z270 MB with the ThunderboltEX 3 card, and the MB does not have a Tb header (or at least I couldn't see one listed) so I'm wondering if this will not be able to scale upto 40Gbs as per your setup!
 
S

syah

Active Member
Also older setups work fine. This is my PC configuration:

Asus Z87-PRO with Asus TBexII on both Win7 & Win10
SF Apollo with TB1 expansion
 
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M

mattbroiler

Established Member
I have a silver apollo quad with original UA tb1 option card and things are working fine on Intel Haswell cpu-based setups -

ASRock Z97 Extreme6 working great with ASRock thunderbolt 2 add in card (single port). I like this motherboard a lot.
I used the same add in card previously with ASRock server board C226 WS. Running the same Haswell i5 cpu in both of those systems.

Also working well on Dell M3800 laptop with tb2 port. One advantage of thunderbolt2 systems is that you don't need to buy yet another adapter in addition to the overly expensive $50 thunderbolt cables since it's the same connection on both ends.
 
S

see venus

Active Member
Forgot to add Startech Adapter along with my Z170x UD5 TH.

I choose to hunt the UD5 TH down as A) UA recommended it an B) It was qualified as a great motherboard for Hackintosh's. So far...it's been worth the hunt unless you are on a tight budget.
 
newyankee

newyankee

Active Member
I'm running the Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 7 with solid performance. I also qualified an Asus Z170 Pro with the Thunderbolt EX3 card. The Asus board did not originally load the thunderbolt drivers, but Microsoft eventually downloaded the drivers and it worked.
 
J

John Cafarella

Active Member
Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 7. I am using the non-recommended Apple TB3-TB2 adapter and haven't had any problem.
 
J

jjnssn

Active Member
Asus X99-E WS/3.1 and EXIII. On my system it is necessary to boot the system with my Apollo units off and then turn on after logging into windows account. Apple TB3/TB2 adapter. Also with this board the BIOS that works consistently is 3101, (the last 3 released all cause issues associated with having the TB3 card installed).
 
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Little Box Records

Little Box Records

Active Member
Gigabyte Z170x ud3 ultra with Startech adapter. After sorting some headaches with firmware updates it's been running flawlessly thus far
 
S

Seppo2o

New Member
Motherboard: ASUS X99-A/USB 3.1
Asus ThunderboltEX3 Expansion Card
Startech.Com Thunderbolt3 to Thunderbolt Adapter Part# TBT3TBTADAP
My new Apollo Quad MK2 Interface works well under Windows 7 Professional with SP1

Regards
Willi
 
I

icu81b4

Member
I was wrong - Now I have the new Scan computer, my motherboard does have the T/bolt header - see sig for new MB info.
 
J

jstelmock

Member
Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 7
Startech adapter
 
M

musicman1973

Member
GIGABYTE Z170X UD5 TH w/ Startech Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt Adapter. Works great.
 
J

jekahawk

New Member
Hi!
My question: I am owner ASUS Z170-A and TB EX3 ASUS expansion card with USB-C and TB connectors. Why i need get Startech adapter if my expansion asus card have TB connector? Why i cant connect Apollo with ASUS EX3 TB directly?

Sorry for my bad english and thanks for answers on my questions.
 
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