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Gigabyte GC-Thunderbolt 2 PCIe Expansion Cards Now Available for X99 Motherboards

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For anyone interested, I got this board working on a Z170 board from Gigabyte with the THB_C header. Both in OS X with Clover and in Windows.

They did need to send me a custom BIOS, but I hope this change will be released. Anyone, just a quick tip, wrote a bit more here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-h...thunderbolt-2-skylake-mostly.html#post1231367

(hope I am not breaking any rules posting the link, but seeing as I trawled through these great forums many times for Thunderbolt help this might be of use to somebody).
 
basak said:
For anyone interested, I got this board working on a Z170 board from Gigabyte with the THB_C header. Both in OS X with Clover and in Windows.

They did need to send me a custom BIOS, but I hope this change will be released. Anyone, just a quick tip, wrote a bit more here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-h...thunderbolt-2-skylake-mostly.html#post1231367

(hope I am not breaking any rules posting the link, but seeing as I trawled through these great forums many times for Thunderbolt help this might be of use to somebody).
Click to expand...



where did you source the card? I'm having a hell of a time trying to track one down.
 
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basak said:
I got it from a Danish retailer: https://www.coolcomputer.dk/gigabyte-gc-thunderbolt-2.html

There's one left, for a bit under 50USD
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Hi Basak

I guess you are also located in Denmark... :)

I wanna build a new hack for music production with UAD Thunderbolt soundcard.

Right now I have a one running with Z87X-UD5H, but need the thunderbolt so I wondering to build X99 hack or if possible to add a HP PCIe card to my Z87 motherboard.

What would you prefer? And if I go for the X99 build do you think I can manage to make it work as swiftly as with the Z87 build?

Thx!
 
A fellow dane, nice!

From looking at the Gigabyte site, a GA-Z87X-UD5 TH board would work, provided you get a Gigabyte Thunderbolt card from Gigabyte.
(the board: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4593#ov
or: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4781#ov)

I have no personal experience with the X99 boards, but it should work. A handful of people have had success, with the ASUS add-in card which works with certain ASUS X99 boards. These to be specific:

X99-DELUXE
X99-DEULXE/U3.1
X99-E WS

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboard-Accessories/ThunderboltEX_II/

Some Gigabyte X99 boards also have the Thunderbolt header, which is needed to support a card. It is pretty important however, that you use the same manufacturer for the Thunderbolt-card and the motherboard. An Asus card won't work on a Gigabyte hard.
 
Hey guys

Has anyone found that the new BIOS update to the Gigabyte X99 Sli has removed the ability to use this card? Its like they discontinued it in the BIOS?
 
infernouk said:
Hey guys

Has anyone found that the new BIOS update to the Gigabyte X99 Sli has removed the ability to use this card? Its like they discontinued it in the BIOS?
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Yes, If you upgrade to any Gigabyte X99 Bios greater than F20, you will lose the ability to access the thunderbolt options in the bios and bios downgrading will be blocked. In order to make a hackintosh on the board, you need to be at Bios F1 or F2b.

For those interested, I have a working X99-UD3P with the GC-thunderbolt Add in card running El Capitan and using a UAD apollo interface with no issues..... once you get the system booted. It was hell to get this working and still requires multiple reboots sometimes to get into the system because the X99 boards have some sort of memory allocation problem. Bios F22 fixes the issue but kills thunderbolt port editing which will be needed for the build. If you need the thunderbolt, never update your bios past F2b.
 
mrthrowdown said:
Yes, If you upgrade to any Gigabyte X99 Bios greater than F20, you will lose the ability to access the thunderbolt options in the bios and bios downgrading will be blocked. In order to make a hackintosh on the board, you need to be at Bios F1 or F2b.

For those interested, I have a working X99-UD3P with the GC-thunderbolt Add in card running El Capitan and using a UAD apollo interface with no issues..... once you get the system booted. It was hell to get this working and still requires multiple reboots sometimes to get into the system because the X99 boards have some sort of memory allocation problem. Bios F22 fixes the issue but kills thunderbolt port editing which will be needed for the build. If you need the thunderbolt, never update your bios past F2b.
Click to expand...

I messaged gigabyte and they gave me a beta bios that allows support for the card on a post F22 motherboard, its called F23x

Not sure how to get that working in OSX though! If you could share how then I can share my BIOS file if you wanted to risk trying?
 
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infernouk said:
I messaged gigabyte and they gave me a beta bios that allows support for the card on a post F22 motherboard, its called F23x

Not sure how to get that working in OSX though! If you could share how then I can share my BIOS file if you wanted to risk trying?
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Really, Can you attach that bios. I will test it on one of my boards. I have two if the same X99 boards.

Setting up the Bios is really counter intuitive. Once you make these changes, the card will work in OSX but not is Windows. I saved two settings on my board... one for each.

For the card to work, you want to make sure you have the 4 pin power molex plugged in. This is near the High Def Audio ( Facing Horizontal, it may be hard to get a molex in there if your case is tight. But it is 100% required.) Plug the thunderbolt card into PCIE Slot 3 (This will be the last slot on the MB)
 
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mrthrowdown said:
Really, Can you attach that bios. I will test it on one of my boards. I have two if the same X99 boards.

Setting up the Bios is really counter intuitive. Once you make these changes, the card will work in OSX but not is Windows. I saved two settings on my board... one for each.

For the card to work, you want to make sure you have the 4 pin power molex plugged in. This is near the High Def Audio ( Facing Horizontal, it may be hard to get a molex in there if your case is tight. But it is 100% required.) Plug the thunderbolt card into PCIE Slot 3 (This will be the last slot on the MB)

Bio Thunderbolt Settings:

Thunderbolt Configuration = Enabled
Thunderbolt Technology = Legacy
Security Level = 32
Ignore thunderbolt option rom = Disabled
Thunderbolt SwSMI Delay = 250
TBT Device Resource Support = Enabled
Reserved mem per slot= 32
Reserved Pmem = 32

Leave the other options the same. If you are able to finally boot in OSX.... the thunderbolt will be recognizded.

Please send your custom bios, I need it to bring my other hackintosh thunderbolt ports back to life :)
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http://www54.zippyshare.com/v/M6y5mYUy/file.html

Here is a link to give a try, i still cant get my card to show up even after flashing this bios though! good luck

The options arent the same as the ones you listed to get it working, so if you manage it please let me know
 
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