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Dell Precision T7910 Thunderbolt 3 add-in card?
I may as well start a new thread at this point because upgrading a Dell Precision T7910 to Thunderbolt 3 continues to be a critical issue.
Owning and operating a dual processor T7910, I have been looking for a Thunderbolt 3 add-in card (AIC) since the original configuration only includes Thunderbolt 2. And because I needed a high-speed interface between external disk drives and my workstation for data backup, I chose and purchased an AkiTio (now Other World Computing) Thunder3 RAID Station, which features the new Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.
It turned out to be a less than ideal situation because I also needed to buy a Thunderbolt 2 cable connecting to the older Dell AIC on one side and a StarTech.com TB 3 to TB 2 Adapter on the other. Adding insult to injury, this limited the speed to Thunderbolt 2 specifications... In short, it's rather disappointing and frustrating that Dell doesn't seem to be inclined to support a TB3 upgrade at this time, especially for one of their most widely used high-end workstations.
Anyway, I recently discovered a TB3 AIC made by ASRock (follow the link). It supports 40Gbps bi-directional bandwidth per channel with Thunderbolt 3 port.
https://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/product.asp?Model=Thunderbolt%203%20AIC&cat=Download#Specification
If you select the specifications sheet from their Web page, then you'll see virtually identical motherboard connectivity akin to the Dell AIC; i.e., PCI Express 3.0 x4 -- including 2 x Thunderbolt™ 3 Type-C Ports (with up to 40Gbps bandwidth) - 1 x DisplayPort IN Port - 1 x Mini DisplayPort IN Port - 1 x TBT Header.
Question: Has anyone ever tried running this particular AIC in their T7910? I sincerely hope that a kind-hearted Dell Engineer will read and favorably respond to a widespread problem that's obviously evoked by planned obsolescence.
ondulino
1 Message
1
April 17th, 2020 07:00
Hi,
ever went forward with this issue?
Thanks!
ChrisBrest
10 Posts
1
September 16th, 2020 03:00
Hi @ondulino @zimocat
Somewhat similar problem here:
I have a Precision T7910 with a TBT header on the motherboard, I bought a TBT3 PCIe card (555-beox) specifically to add TBT3 to T7910 workstation, the card was added on slot 3 (as per Dell's official video on youtube) and the header cable connected (a cable that I got from an Asus Thunderbolt card, not the official NK4P3 Dell cable). I'm connecting the TBT cable to a TBT3 docking station, the display works (2x 2.5k resolution) but no usb connection...the ports get powered but no data get transfered (no mouse, no keyboard no usb stick, ethernet etc...).
I know my dock is working fine because I use it with my XPS13 laptop without issues and all ports (USB & Ethernet) are working. I also have another small dock (Dell DA300) and the same issue arrises, no problem to output video and use the usb port when connectig it to my laptop USB-C port, but only video works when connecting it to the TBT add-on card on my T7910...
I ckecked the bios on the T7910, TBT is enabled, no security (SL0), the dock is recognised and approved in the TBT app on windows, I've looked online and on Dell community threads but was unsuccesfull in troubleshooting my issue.
I've spend an hours with Dell Support today explaning the situation but they could not come up with a solution...
I feel it's a small thing, maybe security related, some setting to change somewhere but I have not been able to work this out and it's quite frustrating...
Any luck on your side?
Thanks
-Chris
claytonb
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440 Posts
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November 2nd, 2023 09:54
3 year old post, how did you get on with your problems?
I'm looking to add TB 3 to my Precision T7910
Docks have firmware updates maybe there is one for yours, I remember running into this problem with my Lenovo dock and a firmware update fixed it, maybe a different issue than mine but remember it had something to do with TB
Chino de Oro
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6.1K Posts
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November 2nd, 2023 20:02
One would think that any successful upgrade to thunderbolt 3 would be reported back by now. Because of the propriety wirings on these Dell boards, I think that you will have a better chance to add a thunderbolt 2 AIC knowing that it will certainly work.
claytonb
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440 Posts
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November 3rd, 2023 05:17
for thunderbolt 2 would I still need GGTXK?
Chino de Oro
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6.1K Posts
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November 4th, 2023 01:16
If you don't use it for video output, you don't need that displayport cable.