9 Legend

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47K Posts

July 16th, 2018 06:00

No because there is no such thing as ADDING thunderbolt.   People think this is an expansion card but its not.  Thunderbolt requires a GPIO header on the motherboard as well as Thunderbolt controller chip on the motherboard. 

 You could add an Antelope Audio Orion32 HD 64-channel HDX with USB3

https://en.antelopeaudio.com/products/orion32-hd/#specs

9 Legend

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33.4K Posts

July 16th, 2018 06:00

Unless, as noted, you have a PC with the Thunderbolt capabilities, you are out of luck. 

I see posts asking about it on recording forums and one of the guru's who commercially builds recording PC's on the Cakewalk Sonar forum has several posts about this exact same thing - the PC must have the capabilities, it can't be "added on".

(I use an MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid in my studio).

1 Rookie

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4 Posts

July 16th, 2018 06:00

Thanks for the reply, is there any way to add Thunderbolt externally ?

1 Rookie

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4 Posts

July 16th, 2018 07:00

Thanks for the reply,really appreciated. Came across this on another forum, does it make any sense ?"Hi i dont know why people give wrong information when they dont know. What thunderbolt 3 does, simply provides a PCI-e slot over USB-C connection. Is there a way to mimick it? yes add a TB3 adapter card to any PCI-e slot. Cost (Aliexpress 10 Usd). Is there any other way to mimick it? Add a TB3 adapter to M.2 slot. No I dont like TB3 can just plug and play some otherway? Yes take out your wifi card. Buy A PCI-e extender, install it in wifi card slot (which is a PCI-e slot normally). Stick other end cable to any 1x to 16x convertor. Install card and power supply, thats it. All three options cost arond 40 usd. Your laptop will remain portable still and wont look like a freinkinstein version."

9 Legend

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47K Posts

July 16th, 2018 07:00

9 Legend

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47K Posts

July 16th, 2018 07:00

THERE IS NO CARD to ADD Thunderbolt.  Its either built into the motherboard OR NOT.  Thunderbolt "add in cards are nothing more than using the PCI-E slot as a mounting bracket.  The GPIO cable from the motherboard to the card as well as the Display port Wrap thru make up thunderbolt on a system that has it.  There is NO STANDARD for PCI-E thunderbolt cards.

Thunderbolt3 using USB C connectors just confuses people even more.

Thunderbolt isn't really and add in card.  There are no thunderbolt upgrades.  They are also not universal aka Dell Card is for Dell ASUS card is for ASUS.  The Thunderbolt header goes to a header on the motherboard.

They use the card to hold a bracket but there is no PCI-E specification for thunderbolt card because it does not exist.

 

A Dell card not one from ASUS. This is not a card that just requires PCI-E bus to EXPAND your system to Thunderbolt.  Therefore it is NOT an expansion card but rather a bracket to hold the thunderbolt port and provide power to the Thunderbolt Transceiver.  The card is essentially a mounting bracket for the thunderbolt port. "Asus is about to release a new Thunderbolt3 adapter card " This will not work in a DELL.

 

Its NOT an expansion card that will go into any machine.  And such cards are not interchangeable between vendors.

Thunderbolt goes to the card and Display port wraps into the card via cables.  Without these cables and POWER from the PCI-E bus these cards do not work and therefore are not interchangeable or applicable to ANY other system.  You can't use the ASUS card in a dell and you cant use the DELL card in an ASUS for example.

People see this card and think that if they have a PCI-E bus they can upgrade to thunderbolt.  This is not the case.


 

 

 

 

1 Rookie

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4 Posts

July 16th, 2018 09:00

Thanks for that,very informative

9 Legend

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33.4K Posts

July 16th, 2018 10:00

My recording studio desktop motherboard is an ASUS that has the Thunderbolt addon capability as described.  Cost is $100 for the ASUS Thunderbolt interface package.  

With a USB 2.0 interface, my recording latency is 2.2 ms, which is very low latency.  USB 2.0 will more than handle everything my MOTU interface has the capabilities to do.

As far as PC hardware Thunderbolt capability, this from an engineer that custom builds PC's for commercial video and audio:

"The motherboard has to specifically support a Thunderbolt-3 add-in-card.
Motherboard has to have a Thunderbolt-3 header... and full support in the BIOS" 

 

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