Thunderbolt officially certified for AMD by... Intel :)

Discussion in 'PC' started by taskforce, Feb 7, 2020.

  1. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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  3. Ballz

    Ballz Producer

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    That's awesome.
     
  4. MrLyannMusic

    MrLyannMusic Audiosexual

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    Finally, i've been holding on going with amd because of Thunderbolt, let's see when this sees the light into consumers grade hardware.
     
  5. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    Well, AMD with Ryzen 3rd gen (Zen2) has already had plenty of x570 boards with TB3. It's just that the employment was unofficial. The thing about it, is that TB3 for Windows is now in a slightly bad position due to Microsoft's unbelievably crap driver that works with absolutely nothing. As i mentioned previously in another post, users of all Win10 variants need to download and install a (sort of weird) driver from Intel that is supposed to be the TB driver for Intel's SFF NUC, if they want their TB peripherals to work, and this is even for Intel based motherboards too. The good news is that the specific Intel driver, works just fine. I will list here the AMD mobos with TB3 so far, so you guys don't need to go about searching.
    Important to notice that just as with Intel mobos, there are two types of TB3 implementation on mobos:
    One is with TB3 port(s) on the motherboard's i/o backplate and the other is with a TB3 header on the mobo. The last one needs an additional AIC TB3 pci-e card to provide functional TB3 connections. All mobo brands have such a card and they go for about 60-100$ depending on the brand.
    So first i will list the X570 boards with onboard TB3 or TB3 header:
    ASRock Aqua
    ASRock Creator
    ASRock Phantom Gaming ITX/TB3
    ASRock TaiChi (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)
    ASRock Extreme 4 and Extreme 4 WiFi (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)
    ASRock Steel Legend and Steel Legend WiFi (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)
    ASRock Phantom Gaming X (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)
    (All ASRock mobos with TB3 header need the Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 to provide TB3 connectivity:
    https://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/product.asp?Model=Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 )

    Gigabyte Aorus Extreme (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)
    Gigabyte Aorus Master (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)
    Gigabyte Aorus Ultra (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)
    Gigabyte Aorus Pro and Aorus Pro WiFi (with TB3 header, needs additional TB3 card)

    Oddly enough, Asus and MSI don't have any X570 boards with Thunderbolt 3.

    For the new AMD Threadripper 3 on the TRX40 chipset there are only two boards atm. The Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Extreme and the Gigabyte TRX40 Designare. Although officially they don't mention Thunderbolt anywhere (because those boards were built and released before Intel "sanctioned" TB3 for AMD), they do have a TB3 header and the Designare also comes with the additional Titan Ridge GC card needed to provide Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Now these boards are expensive but given that here we are on the HEDT platform, i 'd like to believe that the Designare strikes a great balance between features, performance and price (~630$ atm). Let's not forget of course that the cheapest cpu for TRX40 motherboards is the 24core/48 threads Threadripper 3960X @ 3.8 ghz going for ~1400$. Which of course is the price that most of us would pay for a full blown new computer. But TRX40 also comes with 72 pci-e lanes vs X570's 24 total pci-e lanes. This means a sh*tload of high bandwidth pci-e peripherals and nvme drives can be connected on a TRX40 mobo and all will run at full speed no compromises whatsoever. If you are one of those rare enthusiasts/power users that needs many pci-e gen 4 nvme drives, this is the platform to start saving money hehehe.
    Cheers guys :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2020
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  6. MrLyannMusic

    MrLyannMusic Audiosexual

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    @taskforce Thanks for the detailed post (Better than google lol), i have done my homework, but i only found the ASRock Aqua to support Thunderbolt 3 on AMD platform, as it was expansive i dropped the whole matter, but the sad part for me is that there is no 16 cores Threadripper, i don't need more, and i would really benefit from the extra PCIe lanes and RAM Slots, but i guess AMD is the new kind and they write the rules...

    I loved the way AMD used to operate when releasing 8 cores and 12 cores on TR platform for people that needs the extra expandability without the need for the extra cores...

    But with the recent Intel prices cuts, i'm looking at Intel mainly because of Hackintosh and compatibility stuff, while the extra power might be nice going with the AMD route, Intel is still a better choice for my specific needs, at least until amd release the perfect mobo/cpu (again for my specific needs)...
     
  7. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    You mean unbelievable even for Microsoft's standards? That would mean epic big time f*cked up things...
     
  8. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    Yep i hear you man. I'd love a 16core TR3 myself too. And you are right to look at Intel 's camp because:
    Right now, there is a big price gap between AMD's normal X570 desktop platform and their new TRX40 HEDT platform. And here is where Intel's new HEDT cpu lineup falls into place. Starting with 10 up to 18 cores (with a suspiciously absent 16core model lol) and a few refreshes on the X299 mobos this may suit your needs when on earth Intel 10xxx cpus hit the market with Intel's new low pricing, because atm they 're nowhere to be found and a few that have been sold were outrageously overpriced. I reckon around March or April this cpu shortage will have been sorted out. The 10900X (10c/20t) should cost around 600$, with the top Intel model 10980XE (18c/36t) a little over 1000$ and mobos starting from ~200-220$. Now this platform offers 48 pci-e gen.3 lanes and still relies on pci-e slot bifurcation to make those pci-e slots conform to various standards needed by nvme storage. With that said, the platform is theoretically cheap enough, so if you don't need the horse power of Threadrippers you 'll be covered for all your needs.
    Now to the matter at hand which of course is Thunderbolt, there is a very cool new Gigabyte mobo on the Intel HEDT camp, the X299X Designare 10G. This mobo at ~600$ isn't exactly cheap but comes with dual Intel X550 10gbps Lan ports and dual TB3 ports.
    Lastly, if you can live with just two pci-e gen.4 m2 drives you should consider going x570. The chipset provides 8 full pci-e lanes of gen.4 so up to 2 pci-e gen4 at x4 speed nvme drives will work at full speed without compromising any Sata slots. Just remember not every mobo on the X570 will be really comfortable with the 16 core 3950X. The best would be to get one of the boards that has a beefy VRM solution. If you don't know which one to choose, just leave a pm or post here and i 'll answer np. :)
    Cheers
    PS: The ASRock Creator (~500$) has exactly the same feature set as the X570 ASRock Aqua (~1000$) minus the water block for what is half the money. For the X570 platform i consider the Creator the best board for the money if you 're looking for TB3 connectivity right out of the box. Oh and Hackintosh AMD is a thing too, although still experimental, the community around it grows day by day :D https://amd-osx.com/
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2020
  9. MrLyannMusic

    MrLyannMusic Audiosexual

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    Again really professional and detailed reply, my main concern is ram, and sata port, besides the thunderbolt of course, basically I wanna buy a future proof system, that I won't have to worry about upgrading in 10 years, and thunderbolt 3 only assures that because I plan on going with UAD, audio interfaces as soon as I can afford them. Being in a my country you have to be really careful with what you buy...
     
  10. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    A little late to correct, but that was misleading a bit... On x570, cpu gives 16 lanes for the first physical x16 pci-e slot (which usually can be switched to 8/8 with the second physical x16 slot), 4 lanes are provided by the chipset and 4 by the cpu for the first m2 slot.
     
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