What motherboards with Thunderbolt 3 work with a 8th generation i7-8700K processor

[mm2margaret]

That 8700k Geekbench is really impressive. Good to hear that you're happy with your 8700k build. I'm kind of torn between 8700k and possibly dumping more money and going x299 route. I found a good deal for 7920x. Also, really tempted by the relatively new Gigabyte x299 Deisgnare EX Mobo mentioned earlier in this thread. Mostly, by the built in TB3. However, the mobo is too new, and I haven't seen any successful builds with it so far.

The biggest disadvantage of x299 build is that it'll be at least twice more expensive than Z370. I will go with a Gigabyte mobo this time as I just had nothing but issues with my current ASUS mobo. At least on Windows side of things.

The biggest limitation of 8700k, imo, is 16 pcie lanes. I will ever only run a single graphics card, but I do have UAD-2 Pcie Dsp card that I'm going to be running and most likely a Pcie based audio interface (RME Aio), so I need to make sure that I will have enough bandwidth to support all devices I'm intending to run. Oh, and I'm also planning on using an M.2 drive as a system drive. I guess I need to read up a bit more about how far can 16 pci lane cpu take me. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

What issues are you having with GC-AlpineRidge card? I heard that overall it works better than Asus EX3 card. I'm sure it varies from case to case, but it seems like more people are successful with GC-AlpineRidge card than the Asus one.

No real issues, just didn't like that when I attached my TB drive to it, it didn't show up until I went into Windows and changed the permissions on the drive itself. Then it showed up on the Mac side. Never had to do that on the Asus. I've never had to adjust permissions on any TB device on the Asus.

As for the 8700K system, I just use it for transcoding, and some other stuff - stuff I can offload from my main system. Cinema 4D renders, After Effects, and some other stuff I do from time to time can chew up resources very fast, so offloading those is very handy....

 

[LateBloomer]

No real issues, just didn't like that when I attached my TB drive to it, it didn't show up until I went into Windows and changed the permissions on the drive itself. Then it showed up on the Mac side. Never had to do that on the Asus. I've never had to adjust permissions on any TB device on the Asus.

As for the 8700K system, I just use it for transcoding, and some other stuff - stuff I can offload from my main system. Cinema 4D renders, After Effects, and some other stuff I do from time to time can chew up resources very fast, so offloading those is very handy....

I guess it's not too bad if you only had to change the permissions once. If you had to do it constantly then I see how it would get annoying quickly.

Well, I'm going to do more reading and hopefully make a decision which way I'll go within a week or two. I appreciate your insight and feedback.

 

[mm2margaret]

I guess it's not too bad if you only had to change the permissions once. If you had to do it constantly then I see how it would get annoying quickly.

Well, I'm going to do more reading and hopefully make a decision which way I'll go within a week or two. I appreciate your insight and feedback.

I have to say that there are a lot of users with the X99-A II reporting really good results (I would one of them), with very few issues. I cannot say that about the X99 Deluxe II. You're one of a couple of folks I've read about who was not happy with that board....it seems weird to say that, but......but, well, there it is....

So, if you're in Seattle, don't you have a Frys up there? I thought Frys was selling a 7940X (the 14 core) for $1299.....

The 8700K system was put together with a lot of spare parts that I had just laying around, so out of pocket costs were under 1K in total....

 

[LateBloomer]

I have to say that there are a lot of users with the X99-A II reporting really good results (I would one of them), with very few issues. I cannot say that about the X99 Deluxe II. You're one of a couple of folks I've read about who was not happy with that board....it seems weird to say that, but......but, well, there it is....

So, if you're in Seattle, don't you have a Frys up there? I thought Frys was selling a 7940X (the 14 core) for $1299.....

The 8700K system was put together with a lot of spare parts that I had just laying around, so out of pocket costs were under 1K in total....

We do have Fry's here. I'm so used to buying everything online (even groceries) that I rarely go there even though I live about 10 minutes away from one. I just checked their site and it's $1399 (+ tax). Maybe there was a Christmas sale on it which is now over

I found a brand new 1920x for $1050 (don't have to pay taxes), so if I'll decide to go for X299 then I'll just settle for that chip.

You're probably not wrong about X99 Deluxe II being "cursed". Which is ironic because it costs more than X99-A II. I suppose I could get X99-A II and 6950x instead of going x299. I'm planning of retiring my older X79 build and replacing it with current Asus X99 build which should work great for occasional gaming.

What kind of benchmarks are you getting with your 6950x? Is it overclocked?

 

[mm2margaret]

Yes, I overclock it. I have it set to 4 Ghz and I use (again) an H60 with it and my temps are terrific. I suppose if I got a real liquid cooler I could overclock it to much higher - I'm thinking 4.5, but I'd rather not push it to the absolute limits. I'll settle for very good performance and leave that last 10-20% for others.

With what I do, stability is absolutely essential. And that is why I have resisted the X299 allure.....despite all the work kgp has done on it, I'm not convinced yet that the X299 platform is quite finished.....

On my 6950X, Geekbench scores are good, but the single core performance can't compete with the 8700K, of course. (You know, the Mac Pro 2012 had dual core processors in it - would I love to do that with two 8700Ks). Again, I could push it much harder, and get better scores, but that's not the way I do things. It's the PCIE lanes, Quad Channel memory and multiple cores that count for me.

 

[yoshisakan]

Yes, I overclock it. I have it set to 4 Ghz and I use (again) an H60 with it and my temps are terrific. I suppose if I got a real liquid cooler I could overclock it to much higher - I'm thinking 4.5, but I'd rather not push it to the absolute limits. I'll settle for very good performance and leave that last 10-20% for others.

With what I do, stability is absolutely essential. And that is why I have resisted the X299 allure.....despite all the work kgp has done on it, I'm not convinced yet that the X299 platform is quite finished.....

On my 6950X, Geekbench scores are good, but the single core performance can't compete with the 8700K, of course. (You know, the Mac Pro 2012 had dual core processors in it - would I love to do that with two 8700Ks). Again, I could push it much harder, and get better scores, but that's not the way I do things. It's the PCIE lanes, Quad Channel memory and multiple cores that count for me.

Hey, I was wondering which version of OSX you are using? I have the same setup as you but I have not been able to get my alpine ridge to work in OSX. It works just fine in windows. I am using it to connect a focusrite audio interface. I am using high sierra.

 

[mm2margaret]

10.13.2 supplemental update. Don't know about the focusrite, as noted above some devices work, some don't - Apollo does, but I just don't know about focusrite.

 

[yoshisakan]

10.13.2 supplemental update. Don't know about the focusrite, as noted above some devices work, some don't - Apollo does, but I just don't know about focusrite.

I finally got it working! I needed to enable "Thunderbolt Boot Support" in bios. Then the machine would restart and while POSTing, my interface's thunderbolt light would light up. Then I have to go into bios and disable "Thunderbolt Boot Support" because when it's enabled, OSX won't boot. Verbose mode screenshot attached. Do you think my clover file is missing a setting somewhere?

 

[jazztronaut]

Well, I noticed you posted in kgp's X99 thread a fair amount, so sorry about your Antelope device. Too bad......

As for my 8700K system, I am very impressed with this processor. As I noted in another reply to another user, Gigabyte MBs seem so easy and more compatible with Macs. Really, I did almost nothing to configure it. Just used an EFI from another user and up it came. As for the BIOS config for performance, it was easy, set the XMP profile to 1, change the processor speed to 4.8 (again very easy, but I do use a Corsair H60 on it), and of course you need to tick plugin type in clover. And done. My temps are in the 30s and 40s, and despite a lot of testing with Geekbench and some other stuff, the temps never went over 60, even at the worst). There's a Geekbench (4.2) attached, and to get that level of performance with virtually no sweat at all.....(I mean, really, compared to the work I had to do on the X99 system, this was like nothing, just a few clicks and off you go....). This motherboard has only dual channel memory and it has some other limitations, but that's nothing really, at least as far as I'm concerned.

If you prefer Asus, and you want TB, you have to be careful and make sure the Asus Z370 motherboard you pick has the TB header (ie - support) on it. Some do, some don't. I'm not crazy about the Gigabyte GC-AlpineRidge card, btw, but I can make it work for what I need it to do.

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Hey do you know if the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 3 would work? Its seems like the same MB just with less PCI express slots?

Pls correct me if I'm wrong. I need TB3 for my Focusrite soundcard.

Many Thanks!

 

[mm2margaret]

Hey do you know if the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 3 would work? Its seems like the same MB just with less PCI express slots?

Pls correct me if I'm wrong. I need TB3 for my Focusrite soundcard.

Many Thanks!

The Gaming 3 is not that different from a Gaming 5, which is what I have on my secondary system. But you always have to check the specs of each board and see if it will do what you need. And, I've already said, I don't know anything about the focusrite device.