14 DAY TRIAL // Gigabyte Technology, probably the largest manufacturer of motherboards, announces that its Z170X-UD5 is the world's first Intel Thunderbolt 3 compliant motherboard. The new motherboard from Gigabyte is a Z170 chipset-based system working on Intel's "Alpine Ridge" controller as well.
The Z170X-UD5 features 10-phase digital VRM, 3-way multi-GPU, M.2 32Gb/s, SATAe 16Gb/s, TB3, USB 3.1, GbE, 4x DDR4 DIMMs with dual-channel and XMP support, Intel GbE LAN chip, 3 x PCI Express x16 slots (PCIEX16, PCIEX8 and PCIEX4) supporting 3 way/2 way SLI or CrossFire, 1 x M.2 Socket 3 connector, 3 x SATA Express connectors plus RAID support, 2x USB Type-C, 8x USB 3.0/2.0 ports, 5 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports, HDMI out, 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel 115dB SNR Realtek ALC1150 audio codec with S/PDIF out, isolated audio circuitry. In short, it's got everything.
Additionally, the motherboard has 2 x 128Mbit flash AMI UEFI BIOS and is in the ATX form factor (30.5cm x 24.4cm).
Gigabyte is quite unique, for now
However, although Gigabyte claims that it has indeed an Intel certified Thunderbolt 3 connector, the Intel cable can, in fact, enter via any of the two reversible USB Type-C connectors on the rear I/O panel.
There have been quite a few Thunderbolt 3 enabled laptops launched recently, but Thunderbold 3-featuring motherboards for PCs have been lagging behind for a while, so it's a good thing to see this standard catching on desktop computers.
Gigabyte's Z170X-UD5 TH uses Intel's controller to bring a single wire bandwidth of up to 40Gb/s and support for protocols such as DisplayPort 1.2 and USB 3.1. Using Thunderbolt's multiple screens support Gigabyte's implementation supports up to 12 devices attached to theZ170X-UD5 TH's dual ports, while the interface can supply up to 36W using Power Delivery 2.0 technology over the USB Type-C ports.
Unfortunately, Gigabyte didn't disclose a price or availability, but it's very likely it will hit the market the next month.
