ASUS Announces Thunderbolt EX Upgrade Card

ASUS recently launched the worlds first certified native Thunderbolt motherboard with the P8Z77-V Premium. While the Premium leads the industry in respect to connectivity and overall functionality it carries a flagship price for its premium feature set. ASUS had kept this in mind along with thinking about how to best support the advanced new interconnect that is Thunderbolt. With this in mind ASUS today unveiled its exclusive Thunderbolt upgrade solution for its line of Z77 and H77 motherboards.

The ThunderboltEX card is the first add-on card on the market enabling an easy way to upgrade ASUS motherboards with the latest I/O. This is proof in having foresight in design as compatible boards had to have a special TB header in place to support this upgrade.

ThunderboltEX plugs into the bottom PCIe slot, taking up a x4 link. It then connects to the Thunderbolt header on the motherboard using a system link cable, and to the DisplayPort-out at the back of the motherboard via a DisplayPort cable. Once all hooked up, users can plug devices to the ThunderboltEX cards Thunderbolt port, gaining access to 10Gbps data transfer and video connectivity with support for up to six daisy-chained devices and a seventh device in the form of a Thunderbolt or DisplyPort Monitor.

As the worlds first dedicated Thunderbolt add-on card, ThunderboltEX works with a range of ASUS Z77 and H77 motherboards that feature Thunderbolt headers. The cards system link cable ensure full Thunderbolt functionality as well as ensures only compatible ASUS Z77 and H77 motherboards are supported.