Thunderbolt for music production on Haswell Hackintosh

[iceissocool]

Hi! I already got my Hackintosh to work around two years ago and now the need arises for a thunderbolt 1 port. I really need suggestions because I can't find solutions to the problem I have on the forums.

Should I just buy a new Mobo? If thats the case what mobo would be recommended that would most likely work with Thunderbolt. Upgrade to skylake(problem here is there is no thunderbolt 3 support yet so i'll be stuck once again) My system is currently running mavericks and should I upgrade that to El Capitan? Here are my components

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H
Processor: Intel i7 4770k
OS: Mavericks
Ram: 2x HyperX 8GB 1600Mhz

I'll be needing it to work with my new interface
Focusrite Clarett 8pre X: https://us.focusrite.com/thunderbolt-audio-interfaces/clarett-8prex

Thank you guys for your help

 

[tonymacx86]

Unfortunately 8 series motherboards don't have the capability of adding on a PCIe Thunderbolt card- there is no Thunderbolt header. You could either get another 8 series motherboard with thunderbolt or a 9 series motherboard. Many 9 series also have the header you need for the PCIe card.

But, I recommend replacing your motherboard with the Gigabyte Z87X-UD7-TH if you can find it. I've been using it as my main rig for a long time and it's solid. It will go with the rest of your components. There is also a 9 series TH board- the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD7-TH. Both boards have Thunderbolt 2. Check out this thread:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/gigabyte-ga-z87x-ud7-th-thunderbolt-2-0-testing.120690/

This list is 9 series motherboards- there are some mATX boards with the Thunderbolt header.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/march/2016

As far as updating, I always recommend the latest OS X release unless you have specific older software that won't run.