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ASUS ThunderboltEX II PCIe Expansion Card - Testing Thread

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Here's some additional good news...THIS appears to be working/compatible with the ThunderboltEX II Dual (and no reason to think it would not be compatible with the single TB model).

Belkin TB2 Dock.png

I was HOPING that TB devices hot-swapped to the dock would actually be hot-swappable, but alas...you still need to have them connected before you power on.
:cry:

UPDATE: Interesting - the Belkin TB 2 Express Doc appears to have built-in USB-compliant audio capabilities:
TB Dock Audio.png

Plugging my Bose speakers into the headphone jack on the TB dock = instant audio!! No hassles with VooDooHDA or trying to patch AppleHDA kexts...
 
^ That's great news... thanks for the update!
 
isove said:
Hi guys , Any one testing or a clue about z77 motherboard ? I have Maximus V Formula
I just buy this card and I try to figure out how to make it working,
All I got testing : power up an external hdd with a FW800 case into an apple thunderbolt adaptorView attachment 112438
but not show in windows at all . Other think is an Apple LED Display 27inch works with display cable into thunderbolt card. Also I have a Drobo 5D with thunderbolt port , but I cand see in windows, Dashboard drobo software cant find it.
There is a picture with what I found in bios :
View attachment 112439
Any help with this ? I will appreciate
Click to expand...


If you had reported that you had an Asus Z77 class motherboard functional with an Asus ThunderboltEX II (single or Dual) then you would have answered a question that has been around for quite some time.

The Asus Z77 boards with Thunderbolt "TB_Header" were supposed to work with the never released original Asus ThunderboltEX card. It was presumably defunct because Intel wouldn't ratify it. This was likely duo to its design implementation. After that Intel supposedly work with Asus and others to come up with what would eventually result in the Asus "ThunderboltEX II (single / Dual)" card (and motherboard header) to interface in a way that Intel would certify.

The assumption there on my part is that there are some differences between the Asus Z77 + unreleased "ThunderboltEX" implementation and the Asus Z87, Z97 and X99 + retail "ThunderboltEX II" implementation.

Having said that, which is relatively bad news for Asus X77 owners if true, there may be some good news in a slightly unrelated note.

Many early X99 motherboards (Asus and non-Asus) I looked at had what looked like Thunderbolt headers. That is to say that the Asus proprietary "TB_Header" now looks as if it has been made into a standard by Intel and has found its way on boards of other manufacturers like Gigabyte, ASRock, and possibly EVGA (I think) for example. I have not seen an MSI X99 board with a Thunderbolt header though.

That "might" mean that the Asus ThunderboltEX II cards (single / dual) may work with the Thunderbolt header on motherboards from other manufacturers like the Gigabyte GA-X99-UD3, GA-X99-UD4 and GA-X99-SOC Force. Or it might mean we will see Thunderbolt II add in cards from other manufacturers.

I'm not saying people with X99 cards that have Thunderbolt headers should run out and buy an Asus ThunderboltEX II card just to see but it might be worth testing for those who already have access to the necessary hardware. This is all speculation on my part mind you.

One small note. In photos of an installed Asus ThunderboltEX II card you'll notice a connecting cable from the card to the motherboard Thunderbolt header. In some photos, which I believe may be newer, there is a connecting cable between the cable and the motherboard header which may change the pin out.
 
Hi BoomR where did you purchase the ASUS ThunderboltEX II (*Dual*) ???


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BoomR said:
Here's some additional good news...THIS appears to be working/compatible with the ThunderboltEX II Dual (and no reason to think it would not be compatible with the single TB model).

View attachment 112839

I was HOPING that TB devices hot-swapped to the dock would actually be hot-swappable, but alas...you still need to have them connected before you power on.
:cry:

UPDATE: Interesting - the Belkin TB 2 Express Doc appears to have built-in USB-compliant audio capabilities:
View attachment 112846

Plugging my Bose speakers into the headphone jack on the TB dock = instant audio!! No hassles with VooDooHDA or trying to patch AppleHDA kexts...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks BoomR... unfortunately I live 2 hours from the closest microcenter, and also it is not in stock... I think I found one online but the website looks a little shady...

Do you or anyone else have any suggestion/recommendations for Thunderbolt audio interfaces?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BoomR said:
Very fortunate here in Dallas to have a store called "MicroCenter" - they are one of the best around & match or beat NewEgg/Amazon prices. They had both the dual & single-port cards in stock when I was shopping for parts:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/436422/Thunderbolt_EX_2_Dual_PCIe_20_Controller_Card
Click to expand...
 
shineproductions said:
Thanks BoomR... unfortunately I live 2 hours from the closest microcenter, and also it is not in stock... I think I found one online but the website looks a little shady...

Do you or anyone else have any suggestion/recommendations for Thunderbolt audio interfaces?
Click to expand...

Give Amazon a search - I found this for the ThuderboltEX-II Dual:

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Motherboard-THUNDERBOLTEX-DUAL-Mini-DisplayPort/dp/B00LYNVNQM/

While I don't have any experience buying from Beach Audio via Amazon, click the "3 new from $88.50" link in the post. You'll see 3 other vendors. One of the 3 vendors - TekEnvy - I have dealt with before. They were very prompt & courteous. The product was packed well in the shipping. And when I thought I had a problem with it & wanted to return, they were very helpful in processing the return (which I didn't have to return after all).

Good luck!
--B
 
Well, I've tried to get my thunderbolt up and running, and I think I managed to get it plugged in and running on the windows side (boy, BoomR's not kidding about the tolerances being out on the build of this card, it's not even CLOSE to being right for screwing into the slot), but when I plug in a thunderbolt drive, and set things exactly like BoomR's setup listed earlier. I get the error message in the photo below when booting in verbose mode so I could see what was going wrong, before mentioning about bluetooth controller support missing, and then it just turns the monitors off without powering down and stays that way.

Any guesses as to what I'm doing wrong? the only thing that I may've done weird was that neither of the devices that I have plugged in are qualified to run on a PC, but they do show up, regardless. I switched over the bios settings to Legacy mode and 128 instead of 32 on the other parameter you have there. if I don't plug in the thunderbolt drive, the machine boots fine. (plugging in a LaCie Little big disk).

Any guesses as to what I could be doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

Asus X99 Deluxe, 5960x, OS 10.10, thunderboltex ii dual port card.
 

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You've got it in the "little" PCHE spot, right? Also, I'd simplify your system for troubleshooting purposes by only using one of your video cards.

Also check the mobo manual - pie slot section. Some of the slots share resources with other devices and slots. Make sure to minimize any hardware conflicts
 
BoomR said:
You've got it in the "little" PCHE spot, right? Also, I'd simplify your system for troubleshooting purposes by only using one of your video cards.

Also check the mobo manual - pie slot section. Some of the slots share resources with other devices and slots. Make sure to minimize any hardware conflicts
Click to expand...

Same mobo as you, I think (x99 deluxe), and the thunderbolt card is in the the one x4 slot, yes. I've only got the one video card, so that's probably not the issue. It's in x16 slot 3, as suggested by the manual.

I did did a complete reinstall last night, to 10.10.1 via the blended Unibeast installer/clover bootloader method, and the thunderbolt card is still recognized by windows, but still no go with the Mac. The error number changed, but was the same otherwise, with the computer crashing out at missing Bluetooth controller support. I tried disabling Bluetooth and wifi from the bios to see of that fixed it, but no dice.
 
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