- Joined
- Feb 19, 2017
- Messages
- 9
Okay, so I've decided to make my first Hackintosh PC recently, and I've been looking at all the components and read many forums to learn many things. I've decided I'm going for an Overclockable i5 6600k, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, etc. Now I'm just taking care of the details before ending up buying it.
A thing I had in mind was to have at least 1 Thunderbolt 2/3 port as all Macs do. But after researching for a bit, I've realized it's much harder than it seems. First of all, I must say I don't want to spend 250€ in a motherboard. I'm not making a PC that needs that. But I've found that not many motherboards have Thunderbolt 3 ports included, and the ones that do are quite expensive. The other option I've found is to buy a PCI-e card, but there aren't many and I'm not sure if they work with all motherboards. They also cost around 75€, so I need to add that to the motherboard price and see if it's worth or if I should rather buy a motherboard with Thunderbolt already integrated.
Now that my introduction has finished, let me tell you my situation. I was going for an ATX MSI Z170A PC MATE, but I'm not sure if it has a Thunderbolt header to connect it with the ThunderboltEX 3 by Asus, for example. My other option was a Gigabyte Z170 Gaming K3: it has the thunderbolt header, but maybe it's not compatible with the PCI-e card. If not, which motherboard at around that price (120 to 140€) would? If the motherboard goes over 140€, then we can all agree it's better to buy a motherboard with TB built-in. If so, which motherboard would you recommend me that has an integrated Thunderbolt 3 port (and doesn't go over 250€)?
Your help is appreciated
A thing I had in mind was to have at least 1 Thunderbolt 2/3 port as all Macs do. But after researching for a bit, I've realized it's much harder than it seems. First of all, I must say I don't want to spend 250€ in a motherboard. I'm not making a PC that needs that. But I've found that not many motherboards have Thunderbolt 3 ports included, and the ones that do are quite expensive. The other option I've found is to buy a PCI-e card, but there aren't many and I'm not sure if they work with all motherboards. They also cost around 75€, so I need to add that to the motherboard price and see if it's worth or if I should rather buy a motherboard with Thunderbolt already integrated.
Now that my introduction has finished, let me tell you my situation. I was going for an ATX MSI Z170A PC MATE, but I'm not sure if it has a Thunderbolt header to connect it with the ThunderboltEX 3 by Asus, for example. My other option was a Gigabyte Z170 Gaming K3: it has the thunderbolt header, but maybe it's not compatible with the PCI-e card. If not, which motherboard at around that price (120 to 140€) would? If the motherboard goes over 140€, then we can all agree it's better to buy a motherboard with TB built-in. If so, which motherboard would you recommend me that has an integrated Thunderbolt 3 port (and doesn't go over 250€)?
Your help is appreciated
Last edited by a moderator:
