Skylake Thunderbolt 3 for Music Production

[joevt]

Yes, as Thunderbolt ports, I have no 3.1 USB devices to test but they should work. I'm using Apple's USB 3.1 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter. (http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter?)

I would call it Thunderbolt 3 port, since USB 3.1 implies a lack of Thunderbolt functionality, and also could mean either USB-A or USB-C connector. A USB-A connector can't have Thunderbolt since Thunderbolt describes both the protocol and the connector.

Drive speeds, from single 7200RPM to 4-drive Raid 5. Expected results, I won't really know unless I test on a genuine Mac Pro but that's not possible at this point for a variety of reasons. On single 7200RPM drives I usually get somewhere around 110 Mb/s and on raid0 systems anywhere from 200 - 300 Mb/bs.

Mb usually means megabit. I think you mean MB for megabyte. I'm not sure if that mega is base-2 (1048576) (which you can write as MiB where the i is for binary) or base-10 (1000000) (which is what the Finder uses). For Raid 5, you would expect up to a 3x speed up from a single drive since the 4th is for parity. The Raid 5 result (200-300 MB/s) seems to be correct for the single drive performance of 110 MB/s.

You can search for 7200 RPM 2.5" drive benchmarks. I found this example:
http://www.storagereview.com/hgst_travelstar_7k1000_review
which says 124 MB/s which seems to match your 110 MB/s result.

Hot swapping T-Bolt drives has always been unworkable on Hacks. It works on genuine Macs and Windows PC but not on Hacks. I've built several T-Bolt Hacks and this is the first instance that I've gotten drives to hot swap or even eject without freezing up the entire OS necessitating a reboot. USB drives and devices have always been hot swappable on Hacks.

But with the Blackmagic MultiDock, you're not hot swapping thunderbolt drives. You are hot swapping the drives themselves, without disconnecting the Thunderbolt cable. So it's more like you're hot-swapping eSATA drives. If you're saying that the MultiDock works correctly only on your latest T-Bolt Hack and not the earlier ones, then that is interesting, and we would like to know the difference between your latest T-Bolt Hack and the earlier ones.

 

[herrschultzz]

"I would call it Thunderbolt 3 port, since USB 3.1 implies a lack of Thunderbolt functionality, and also could mean either USB-A or USB-C connector. A USB-A connector can't have Thunderbolt since Thunderbolt describes both the protocol and the connector."
Pretty sure it's a USB 3.1 connector that can function as a T-Bolt 3 with the adapter. As soon as I can get a 3.1 device, I'll check it.

Thanks for the speed specs, it seems to be the right mix of speed numbers

" If you're saying that the MultiDock works correctly only on your latest T-Bolt Hack and not the earlier ones, then that is interesting, and we would like to know the difference between your latest T-Bolt Hack and the earlier ones."
I didn't have the Multidock for use with the older builds so I can't compare. I'm saying that this is the first time to have the ability to hot swap drives hooked up in any way through the Thunderbolt port without freezing the entire computer for a hard reboot. This freeze up would happen, of course, on individual T-bolt drives. Yes, I'm hot swapping drives as if they were eSata so that most likely explains it, still, it's great that I can hot swap drives at will so I can hand off individuals or raid pairs to editorial and mount new ones without a reboot.

 

[joevt]

Pretty sure it's a USB 3.1 connector that can function as a T-Bolt 3 with the adapter. As soon as I can get a 3.1 device, I'll check it.

All Thunderbolt 3 connectors are USB-C connectors and can do USB 3.1 (with proper drivers which El Capitan doesn't have - I'm not sure about Sierra).
Not All USB 3.1 connectors can do Thunderbolt 3.
Not all USB 3.1 connectors are USB-C.
Not all USB-C connectors can do USB 3.1 (they could be USB 1.0 or 2.0 or USB 3.0).
That's why I call it a Thunderbolt 3 port. It functions as a Thunderbolt 3 port when you connect a Thunderbolt 3 device (or a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter). It functions as a USB port when you connect a USB device.

 

[imnotjack]

This has been a really helpfull thread! Thank you guys. but I still haven't got my Universal Audio Apollo working. I got to a point where it appears in the IOReg as an Unrecognized UAD-2 Device.

I've tried most of the post in this thread with no success at all. It seems that some other people had got it working with the board I have, but it seems that the solutions provided by them had no effect on my system.
The IOReg shows Unrecognized UAD-2 Device.
I downgraded to El Capitan and still, came to the same problem. Do I have to do anything different from the usual on Win (install update for BIOS, updated Thunderbolt drivers, Thunderbolt FW Drivers, TBT Flash, connect the device with the thunderbolt app in windows..)?
Still haven't tried reducing the USB ports.
BTW my BIOS is F21.
Attached a Screenshot and IOReg for any help i could get. Thank you guys in advance.

 

[QkY]

I recently wrote a guide for a Music Production build that uses the Apollo via Thunderbolt 3!

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...designare-6700k-hd530-tb3-960-evo-m-2.213113/

Might worth checking out as it might help some of you

 

[Sarevok115]

Is TB3 compatible now in Sierra?

 

[herrschultzz]

Is TB3 compatible now in Sierra?

I don't know the exact answer to that, but I do know that as of the 10.12.2 update eGPU functions are fully supported and since most of the eGPU devices are now TB3 it would be logical that TB3 is fully implemented now. I'm planning on getting either the Akitio eGPU extender (https://goo.gl/LdTyZe) or the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box when it becomes available.

A bigger question is whether the NVidia 1080/1070 series graphics boards are supported in OS X yet. I think not, but I'm going to house a Red Rocket X accelerator card in the eGPU unit for Red Cinema footage work, and I am now using a 980Ti card internally which is fully supported in OS X via NVidia drivers.

Here is a barefeats review of the Sonnet unit: https://goo.gl/lJ2eX4

 

[herrschultzz]

I just discovered that there are GTX 1080 Webdrivers and CUDA drivers here:

The NVidia 1080 series drivers are out (http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/117854/en-us) as well as new CUDA drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-cuda-8.0.81-driver.html)

 

[joevt]

Is TB3 compatible now in Sierra?

The behavior has not changed much since El Capitan.

Thunderbolt devices work but must be plugged in before startup and can't be hot swapped.
USB 3.1 on Thunderbolt chips requires Sierra.
DisplayPort alt mode, or Thunderbolt displays, or Thunderbolt display adapters work.

I don't think Thunderbolt networking works (connecting two computers with Thunderbolt).
I'm not sure about iMac Target Display Mode using Thunderbolt. Some older iMacs can use DisplayPort or Thunderbolt for Target Display Mode.

 

[jcjr001]

1st) TB3 and 3.1/USB-C are not the same at all, even though they look similar.
2nd) UAD Apollo 8 is designed to be used for BOTH Mac and PC - as long as they have an available Thunderbolt 2 port (or, in my case, I had to purchase an adapter from TB3 to TB2).
3rd) You cannot plug a TB3 cable into a USB-C/3.1 port (or the other way around) and expect it to work - in fact, in some cases you may even cause damage to your equipment due to the voltage supplied via the TB3 port.
I am in the same situation as many of you - however, my system's hardware is even more up to date than any one in the blogs are describing... I have an ASRock MB with the X299 chipset, 2066 socket, i9 processor and I added in the ASRock Thunderbolt 3 AIC. Everything is working peachy under Win 10 - but how will it do when/if I attempt to turn this into a Hackintosh?