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tonymacx86's ASUS Test Build: Z97-A - i3-4340 - HD4600 - Thunderbolt EX II

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PSU's need to be Haswell Certified or Ready. By not doing these two things, you will run into problems, like freezes and unscheduled shut downs.

Sorry for this little OT. I'm buying a Corsair CX750M. Is it certified/ready for haswell? Thanks
 
More of a hardware question, but can someone (Tony?) verify which PCI-e slots the Thunderbolt card works in on this board?

From specs on the Thunderbolt card:

PCI Express 2.0 x4 interface

From Asus specs on the Z97-A:

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x2 mode)
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 *
2 x PCI

The * is that the 2xPCIe 2.0 x1 are shared with the M.2.

I presume it can be plugged in any of the first two 3.0/2.0 x16, but not the 3rd 2.0 x16 since it only is x2?

So plugged into the 2nd, it would limit the gfx card to x8?
 
More of a hardware question, but can someone (Tony?) verify which PCI-e slots the Thunderbolt card works in on this board?

From specs on the Thunderbolt card:

PCI Express 2.0 x4 interface

From Asus specs on the Z97-A:

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x2 mode)
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 *
2 x PCI

The * is that the 2xPCIe 2.0 x1 are shared with the M.2.

I presume it can be plugged in any of the first two 3.0/2.0 x16, but not the 3rd 2.0 x16 since it only is x2?

So plugged into the 2nd, it would limit the gfx card to x8?

The ASUS site says that it should be plugged into the last slot- closest to the bottom of the board.

http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ThunderboltEX_II/


c.jpg

I've not tried it with M.2- the way I've used it is working with graphics card in any of the PCIe 3.0 lanes, and ThunderboltEX II in last slot- the 2.0 slot.
 
Huh. That would appear to be the slot listed: 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x2 mode).

From what I can tell, that means you can still have M.2, Sata Express, and Thunderbolt all running at the same time. This appears to be the only Asus Z97 board on which this is possible.... The Deluxe and Pro models all share lanes...

EDIT: Just bought the board. It appears the specs on the ASUS site are not *'d appropriately. The paper manual says that the M.2 and SATA Express share lanes, just like the Pro and Deluxe.

EDIT2: Installation of 10.9.4 was a breeze. Audio works. Will test optical SPDIF shortly.
 
SPDIF works too. Big thanks to tonymacx86 and toleda.
 
The ASUS site says that it should be plugged into the last slot- closest to the bottom of the board.

http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ThunderboltEX_II/

On the ASUS Web site, it shows additional images of porting the on-board HD4000/46000 video to the TB card. Do you know: Does that trick also work with a dedicated GPU? In other words, if I have a GPU card but Thunderbolt Cinema Display, would I be able to route video from GPU to TB card via in-box DP cable, then connect TB Cinema Display to TB card?

Wow...does that sound convoluted? LOL
 
Ok, so now I have installed OS X 10.10 everything works as planned, except the audio, how do I fix this?, i have alc 892 on my z97c motherboard
 
Ok, so now I have installed OS X 10.10 everything works as planned, except the audio, how do I fix this?, i have alc 892 on my z97c motherboard

Yosemite has changed it's audio output settings. See this post.
 
I ran into slow/unstable network issues ...
Thought it was my NAS which gave me problems, but no!

Installed an earlier version of the networkcard driver, problem solved! :)
With an Z97-A mainboard use AplleIntelE1000e V3.0.4.1A instead ..
All problems gone :) :angel:
 
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