# ASUS ThunderboltEX II Add-on Thunderbolt 20 Gbps Cards Now Available



## btarunr (Jan 28, 2014)

ASUS rolled out second-generation add-on Thunderbolt cards for its motherboards, the ThunderboltEX II series. It includes the single-port ThunderboltEX II, and the two-port ThunderboltEX II DUAL. The two are based on Intel's DSL5320 and DSL5520 chipsets, respectively, and support the Thunderbolt 2.0 standard, which offers 20 Gb/s of bandwidth over a single cable. 

The cards aren't completely independent, and can't just be plugged into any motherboard with a PCI-Express 2.0 x4/x16 slot. It requires a special header that's used for timing, and low-level system interface, and optionally, an end-to-end DisplayPort (if you want to relay display from your graphics card through the common Thunderbolt pipe). A list of compatible motherboards can be found on the product page. 



 



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## puma99dk| (Jan 28, 2014)

will this ever come to the market so it can be brought by users and used?

or will it be like the first ThunderboltEX add-on card they made, showing it, but not available...


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## librin.so.1 (Jan 28, 2014)

at this point, getting Thunderbolt is very much meh.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 28, 2014)

Vinska said:


> at this point, getting Thunderbolt is very much meh.


Thunderbolt will probably have the same fate as Firewire Did


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 28, 2014)

Wonder if it would work with mine, I have the TB header but it is not on the list, if so it may work on other boards that have the TB header.


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## librin.so.1 (Jan 29, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Thunderbolt will probably have the same fate as Firewire Did



exactly my point.


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## puma99dk| (Jan 29, 2014)

tigger said:


> Wonder if it would work with mine, I have the TB header but it is not on the list, if so it may work on other boards that have the TB header.



your board should have the first generation of Thunderbolt this here is the second, but i do not know if it's backward compatible ^^;


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## librin.so.1 (Jan 29, 2014)

tigger said:


> Wonder if it would work with mine, I have the TB header but it is not on the list, if so it may work on other boards that have the TB header.


Your mobo is not in the compatible mobo list.


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## Prima.Vera (Jan 29, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Thunderbolt will probably have the same fate as Firewire Did


Let's hope so. Overpriced proprietary standards should disappear in plain smoke.

Btw, this both external and internal cabling garbage reminds me of 3dFX's VooDoo and VooDoo2 cards.

P.S.

LOL, only 8 motherboards supported )))))


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## Octavean (Jan 29, 2014)

puma99dk| said:


> your board should have the first generation of Thunderbolt this here is the second, but i do not know if it's backward compatible ^^;



Compatability with older ASUS Z77 boards with the proprietary TB_Header is in question although I suspect it is unlikely.

Keep in mind that the Thunderbolt chip and circuitry is on the add-in card itself not the motherboard.  So his board (as you put it) isn't a first generation Thunderbolt board since none of these boards actually have Thunderbolt on it.  

The functionality of the Thunderbolt header "TB_Header" may have changed from the never released defunct ASUS Z77 series ThunderoltEX option to the new ASUS Z87 series ThunderboltEX II.  Keeping in mind that Intel refused certification for the ThunderboltEX but presumably collaborated with ASUS on the resultant ThunderboltEX II option,.......which they obviously certified,....

So something has changes,......


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## puma99dk| (Jan 29, 2014)

Octavean said:


> Compatability with older ASUS Z77 boards with the proprietary TB_Header is in question although I suspect it is unlikely.
> 
> Keep in mind that the Thunderbolt chip and circuitry is on the add-in card itself not the motherboard.  So his board (as you put it) isn't a first generation Thunderbolt board since none of these boards actually have Thunderbolt on it.
> 
> ...



my old Gene-Z/Gen3 board had a TB_Header aswell but i dunno if the port still support 2.0 aswell as 1.x


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## Octavean (Jan 29, 2014)

Where are these ThunderboltEX II and ThunderboltEX II Dual cards "now" avalible,..........?


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## puma99dk| (Jan 29, 2014)

Octavean said:


> Where are these ThunderboltEX II and ThunderboltEX II Dual cards "now" avalible,..........?



no where so far, hope it don't be "a show and tell" as with their first TB add-on card...


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## Octavean (Jan 29, 2014)

It's also worth noting that these ThunderboltEX II cards supposedly are not simply plug and play.  I've heard a BIOS upgrade is necessary and will provide Thunderbolt options within the UEFI. If accurate that would or could be another obstacle in getting older Z77 boards working if they do indeed need a specific BIOS upgrade.


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## Prima.Vera (Jan 29, 2014)

Octavean, please read again the news and check that link. It's ALL explained there. 
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ThunderboltEX_II/


Compatible Model
MAXIMUS VI EXTREME
SABERTOOTH Z87
Z87-PRO
Z87-PRO(V EDITION)
Z87-PLUS
Z87-PLUS(VivoMouse EDITION)
Z87-A
Z87-A(NFC EXPRESS EDITION)


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## Octavean (Jan 29, 2014)

Prima.Vera said:


> Octavean, please read again the news and check that link. It's ALL explained there.
> http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ThunderboltEX_II/
> 
> 
> ...


 
I don't know what you are getting at.

I dont have an earlier Asus based Z77 motherboard so i don't really care if earlier Z77 motherboards are supported or not. I have no vested interest in this either way in this respect.   I was only trying to answer the question for people with older Z77 Asus motherboards and my guess is that these ThunderboltEX II cards are likely not supported on older boards regardless of whether they have a "TB_Header",....or rather will not function.

The supported Asus Z87 motherboard list is self explanitory.  Although I was already well aware of which Asus Z87 motherboards had the "TB_Header" well before Asus made a supported motherboard list availble,........so it was easy to tell which Asus Z87 boards would be supported in the future. 

So I had no questions in that respect,....

My questions were:

If the Asus ThunderboltEX II cards are now available (like in the title of this thread) then where? The Asus product page doesnt offer a point of sale. Its not on Amazon, Newegg and so on,.....

Edit:

Also note that the Asus ThunderboltEX II Dual add-in card has a much shorter compatible motherboard list then the ThunderboltEX II consiting only of the Asus Z87-Deluxe:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ThunderboltEX_IIDUAL


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 29, 2014)

Octavean said:


> I don't know what you are getting at.
> 
> I dont have an earlier Asus based Z77 motherboard so i don't really care if earlier Z77 motherboards are supported or not. I have no vested interest in this either way in this respect.   I was only trying to answer the question for people with older Z77 Asus motherboards and my guess is that these ThunderboltEX II cards are likely not supported on older boards regardless of whether they have a "TB_Header",....or rather will not function.
> 
> ...




I won't be using this anyway, just wondered


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## Tarkhein (Jan 29, 2014)

Octavean said:


> Edit:
> 
> Also note that the Asus ThunderboltEX II Dual add-in card has a much shorter compatible motherboard list then the ThunderboltEX II consiting only of the Asus Z87-Deluxe:
> 
> http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ThunderboltEX_IIDUAL



The dual Thunderbolt expansion card only has the one motherboard in its compatibility list probably because it's the only motherboard in Asus' product stack that has two DisplayPort out.


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## ypsylon (Feb 1, 2014)

TB - Dead before really coming into life. Another FW moment. So what FW was better than USB 1&2. It was   expensive (Apple greed) to implement, all proprietary rubbish was proverbial nail in the coffin. TB (Intel&Aplle greed) will end in the same way. USB3 and external PCI-Ex are the future.


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