mATX with thunderbolt?

D

Darakian

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 12, 2004
Messages
4,698
Hi all, has anyone come across a haswell board that is both mATX in form factor and has at least one thunderbolt port? Are any known to be in the pipe?
 
The number of TB ports on ATX boards seems to be lacking much less mATX. I really feel Intel/the board manufacturers dropped the ball on that.
 
Indeed. I thought haswell was supposed to usher in the mass adoption of thunderbolt. Guess not.
 
Darakian said:
Hi all, has anyone come across a haswell board that is both mATX in form factor and has at least one thunderbolt port?
Click to expand...
The manual for the asus gryphon z87 shows a thunderbolt header: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/GRYPHON-Z87/E7870_GRYPHON_Z87.pdf
I wonder if this is a mistake, as the thunderbolt header isn't listed on asus's spec overview.
Since last year's asus thunderboltex card never shipped and was never certified by intel, maybe the thunderbolt header on this board is just vestigial.
Someone did make the good point that intel will never certify a board like the thunderboltex as it allows discrete (non-intel) graphics to make use of thunderbolt.

Otherwise, no I don't see any matx thunderbolt haswell yet. I hope someone does one (and without a huge price premium like gigabyte's z77mx-d3h-th always had).
 
bad144 said:
The manual for the asus gryphon z87 shows a thunderbolt header: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/GRYPHON-Z87/E7870_GRYPHON_Z87.pdf
I wonder if this is a mistake, as the thunderbolt header isn't listed on asus's spec overview.
Since last year's asus thunderboltex card never shipped and was never certified by intel, maybe the thunderbolt header on this board is just vestigial.
Someone did make the good point that intel will never certify a board like the thunderboltex as it allows discrete (non-intel) graphics to make use of thunderbolt.

Otherwise, no I don't see any matx thunderbolt haswell yet. I hope someone does one (and without a huge price premium like gigabyte's z77mx-d3h-th always had).
Click to expand...

Well, the header is there. You can see a close-up of it in this review:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Mother...cro-ATX-Motherboard-Review/Motherboard-Layout
 
I heard somewhere that there will be 3 TUF Z87 mobos coming. They only released 2. Maybe its coming soon, hopefully its also an mATX with the thunderbolt.
 
Parja said:
Well, the header is there. You can see a close-up of it in this review:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Mother...cro-ATX-Motherboard-Review/Motherboard-Layout
Click to expand...
I know, I saw that article and pic. You can also see the header in asus's own pic, though only some of the TB_HEADER lettering is visible.http://www.asus.com/media/global/products/1rZrl1Syxkizi57k/gHs0cHv29XX9X8Wl_1000.jpg
Nevertheless, the header remains undocumented in use in the manual, unlike the rest of the headers. Also it's not mentioned in asus's marketing or specs (unlike the specs on pcper's web page).
So this makes me think the header is vestigial and not to be supported just like it was never in any use on asus's z77 motherboards. The only hope I see for this board is if asus is going to come out with a replacement for the thunderboltex card that strictly uses the intel on-board graphics.
 
Sabertooth. Gryphon. Formula. The Formula will be E-ATX and probably won't have any provision for TB unless you get the special/more expensive model.
 
Ok, that's good to know, but where do you get the card from? Everything I find says it hasn't passed validation yet.
 
Darakian said:
Ok, that's good to know, but where do you get the card from? Everything I find says it hasn't passed validation yet.
Click to expand...
Exactly, the thunderboltex card has been vaporware. Asus reps stopped answering questions about it around a year ago (around when it was reported that it failed certification with intel). Educated speculation has been that intel will never certify such a card as it allows pass-thru of non-intel graphics.

So it's rather strange to see the header show up in a 2013 motherboard. Perhaps asus has a new card in mind that will work with the header that has a chance of passing certification?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top