Aurora R9, motherboard compatibility with Thunderbolt PCIe card

Looks unlikely. Even some branded Z370 motherboards needs BIOS workaround.

Large HDD and now TB card. You into creative production? New cheese grater Mac Pro not to your taste?

@Bufteeman  Apparently, the R7 motherboard was incompatible with Thunderbolt entirely.

@GTS81 wrote:

Looks unlikely. Even some branded Z370 motherboards needs BIOS workaround.

Large HDD and now TB card. You into creative production? New cheese grater Mac Pro not to your taste?

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Well, originally at least.  But Dell did release a BIOS update for the R7 (which presumably would be included with an R9): 

"Enhancements: - Enhanced Thunderbolt PCIE add-on card support." 

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=d7kg8&oscode=biosa&productcode=alienware-aurora-r7-desktop

I think the real problem is like most all of the available Thunderbolt C PCiE add-on cards require a 5 PIN connection to a Thunderbolt header on the motherboard in order to work:

I think the best course of action is to contact Dell and ask if they sell or can recommend any compatible PCiE Thunderbolt cards like as noted in their BIOS update. 

Sounds like a good idea, thanks for the info. My hunch is no, but we'll see

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@Bufteeman wrote:

Sounds like a good idea, thanks for the info. My hunch is no, but we'll see

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So I found out that Dell does in fact sell a Thunderbolt 3 PCiE add on card specifically listed as compatible on Dells website for the Aurora, and it does not require a header on the motherboard.  Instead, it uses a short Displayport 1.3 to Thunderbolt 3/USB C cable, which should be supplied with the card. 

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/thunderbolt-3-pcie-card-2-type-c-ports-1-dp-in/apd/555-beox/networking 

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@r72019 wrote:

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@speedstep wrote:

 

"it does not require a header on the motherboard."

This is wrong entirely.  AFAIKT there is no such card for aurora ANY MODEL.   its a USB-C network card that has DISPLAY PORT ALTERNATE MODE but DOES NOT HAVE THUNDERBOLT 3.

 

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If you click on the link to Dell's website that I posted, it says it is compatible with the Aurora.  

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Also, If you search the same Dell part number for the product I linked on the community thread, here is an explanation from Dell explaining how the card works without a thunderbolt header on another PC listed as compatible (there was initially a similar comment like what you said here): 

https://www.dell.com/community/Precision-Fixed-Workstations/Dell-precision-7820-Thunderbolt-add-in-card/td-p/6111939 

"It comes as a customer kit, SKU number: 555-BEOX

The kit contains the card (p/n# P1XY1, CRD,NTWK,I/O,PCIE,TBT3,FH,V2) and cable ( p/n# H71G3, ASSY,CBL,DP1.3,TBT3/USB3.1,D8)"

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@speedstep wrote:

 

"it does not require a header on the motherboard."

This is wrong entirely.  AFAIKT there is no such card for aurora ANY MODEL.   its a USB-C network card that has DISPLAY PORT ALTERNATE MODE but DOES NOT HAVE THUNDERBOLT 3.

 

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If you click on the link to Dell's website that I posted, it says it is compatible with the Aurora.  

"it does not require a header on the motherboard."

This is wrong entirely.  AFAIKT there is no such card for aurora ANY MODEL.   its a USB-C network card that has DISPLAY PORT ALTERNATE MODE but DOES NOT HAVE THUNDERBOLT 3.

ALL thunderbolt cards are nothing more than a bracket to hold the thunderbolt connector and pass the display port thru.

5 pin GPIO header is required and is NON Standard meaning there is no such thing as a Thunderbolt PCI-E add in card standard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_CnQJY4NoY

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboard-Accessories/ThunderboltEX-3/

And one last point:  

"Intel Thunderbolt Controller Driver for Aurora":  https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=3k7dx&oscode=wt64a&productcode=alienware-aurora-r7-desktop 

"Alienware Aurora R7 System BIOS ... Enhanced Thunderbolt PCIE add-on card support." 

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=d7kg8&oscode=wt64a&productcode=alienware-aurora-r7-desktop 

Thanks for all the research guys. Love this board.

Humm, well I don't know what to say, except that the person who purchased this the "SKU number: 555-BEOX" card thanked the Dell moderator who made the comments quoted above, and confirmed that the Thunderbolt card successfully added two thunderbolt 3 ports to their PC. 

https://www.dell.com/community/Precision-Fixed-Workstations/Dell-precision-7820-Thunderbolt-add-in-c... 

Also, a Dell moderator just announced that this same Thunderbolt 3 card is now validated for use on the XPS 8930 (which is very similar to the Aurora, no thunderbolt header, etc.)  Also,some photos of the card: 

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8930-short-13-quot-DP-cable/td-p/7475843/page/4

If that were true they would have mentioned the Thunderbolt 3 security settings in bios.  There is no mention whatsoever in the Aurora or 8930 documentation of Thunderbolt3 or Thunderbolt Security or a 5 Pin GPIO header that ALL VENDORS including HP and ASUS and Gigabyte etc REQUIRE if you want Thunderbolt 3.  There are vendor and model specific Add in cards for specific boards.  Said Card is NOT compatible with all systems but rather specific models that have the header on the motherboard. The reason for no documentation on this is that it does not exist.  That could change in the future but right now as of Feb 4, 2020 its non existant.

USB-C and Networking and Display port Alternate mode work and DO NOT REQUIRE a thunderbolt controller.

There are in fact USB-C and network pci-e cards that work fine.

Using something that is USB-C on a USB-C port is not using thunderbolt 3.

I have a dell laptop that has thunderbolt3 and I purchased a GIGABYTE gaming box to test it.

GIGABYTE Gaming Box RX 580 8G Graphic Card eGPU (GV-RX580IXEB-8GD)

https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-Gaming-Graphic-Card-GV-RX580IXEB-8GD/dp/B07CCK527Y/

DELL is not a listed vendor for Thunderbolt3 Add in card. ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, QSAN list cards for SPECIFIC boards with 5 pin Header.

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/product/xn-tb302-0

 https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/thunderbolt_3_product_showcase_2019_Q4.pdf

Thunderbolt™ 3 brings Thunderbolt to USB-C at speeds up to 40 Gbps

https://www.msi.com/PC-component/ThunderboltM3/Specification

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboard-Accessories/ThunderboltEX-3/

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-TITAN-RIDGE-rev-10#kf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLs_0wHcv4A

Dell Precision thunderbolt add-in-cards on a Dell Precision Tower 5810, 7810, 7910, Rack 7910, T1700 MT, T1700 SFF and 3620 MT. 
Thunderbolt Add-In-Cards Setup Guide There is no such guide for 8930 or Aurora afaikt. 

"Add-in cards on the newer Precision systems that support Thunderbolt (xx20,xx30) don't require a GPIO cable/header. All that is required is the card and a DisplayPort 1.3 to Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 Cable (usually supplied with the card). On the 7820 it is supported on PCIe slots 4 and 5."

This is nonsense and wrong.  ALL Vendors require a header.

Thunderbolt™ 3 brings Thunderbolt to USB-C at speeds up to 40 Gbps

https://www.msi.com/PC-component/ThunderboltM3/Specification

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboard-Accessories/ThunderboltEX-3/

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-TITAN-RIDGE-rev-10#kf

There is also no support for thunderbolt 3 security in bios.  I see no documentation to indicate otherwise for the Aurora or 8930.

Systems that have optional Thunderbolt 3 capability will have a USB/Thunderbolt configuration option listed in the BIOS regardless of having a Thunderbolt 3 card installed.

If the system DOES NOT have Thunderbolt 3 capability, the thunderbolt options will be grayed out and cannot be selected in the BIOS.

It is not enough to simply insert a card into the PCI Express bus already present on your motherboard. Thunderbolt 3 cards make an additional connection, using the so-called GPIO (General-purpose I/O) header. Unfortunately, the exact nature of this connection is not documented or standard.

The driver says Thunderbolt software version 17.4.78.500

I think the Aurora and XPS references are a mistake.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/qna44089/thunderbolt-3-40gbps-data-transfer-rate?lang=en

Intel-Thunderbolt-Controller-Driver_3K7DX_WIN_17.4.78.500_A10.EXE

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=3k7dx

https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER05525024M/2/Intel-Thunderbolt-Controller-Driver_3K7DX_WIN_17.4.78.500_A10.EXE

Supported Thunderbolt Controllers
=================================
DSL6540/6340 Series - "Alpine Ridge"
JHL6540/6340 Series - "Alpine Ridge"
JHL6240 Series - "Alpine Ridge LP"
JHL7540/7340 Series - "Titan Ridge"

No mention of these on ANY Aurora or XPS 8930.

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1575&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1577&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15BF&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D2&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D9&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15E8&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15EB&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DC&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DD&CC_0880
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DE&CC_0880

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/97400/intel-jhl7540-thunderbolt-3-controller.html

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/18-241_Thunder7000Controller_Brief_FIN_HI.pdf

I took delivery of a "P1XY1, Dell Part 555-BEOX, Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Card 2 Type C Ports 1 DP card" today and installed it into my Aurora R8.

The kit contained no GPIO cable (although there is a plug on the board that looks like it is for a GPIO cable), just an DP cable to connect a graphics card output to the Thunderbolt card graphics input. However, when the card went into PCIE slot 3 it was recognised as a Thunderbolt controller (but it didn't work in slot 2 strangely enough).  So far so good.

However, when I used the TB port to connect the Aurora to  a laptop TB port using a 1m passive cable, I was only able to use the TB peer to peer network capability to transfer files at up to 160MB per second, according to Windows 10.  This is way lower than I believe Thunderbolt 3 should be capable of so, whilst it's true the card does seem to have some of the benefits of TB 3 (e.g. device manager shows I have a thunderbolt controller, and I can easily set up a peer to peer connection using Intel's thunderbolt software), the speed is not what I'd expect. TBH I'm not sure what this means I have installed, but the data transfer speed is okay for my use, albeit not what I thought it would be.

I've not yet tried it to run a monitor, but I will soon.

I posted a pic of the card below.