Thunderbolt

[neverknowu]

Hello,

I was wondering if there was a board that has Thunderbolt and room for at least 2 large sized cards like the GTX 690s, and hoping for a third graphics card slot. Another 690 would be nice, for a total of 3. Looking at the Asus P8Z77-V Pro, but it doesn't look like it has the room. I could be wrong though.

 

[appletoo]

GA-Z77X-UP5 TH

"The Z77X-UP5 TH’s layout is good overall, with one of its two USB 3.0 internal headers found above the top graphics card slot where it won’t block anything. The top and middle PCIe x16 slots are also separated by three spaces to assist GPU cooling, and the Port 80 diagnostics display is located by the memory slots where it can’t get blocked by a processor or graphics card heat sink."

Quoted from Tom's Hardware Six $220-280 Z77 Express-Based Motherboards, Reviewed

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77x-up5-th-z77a-gd80-z77-oc-formula,3305-12.html

Tom's Hardware did not like the Asus P877-V Pro.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-extreme6-z77a-gd65-z77h2-a2x,3187-22.html

 

[neverknowu]

GA-Z77X-UP5 TH

"The Z77X-UP5 TH’s layout is good overall, with one of its two USB 3.0 internal headers found above the top graphics card slot where it won’t block anything. The top and middle PCIe x16 slots are also separated by three spaces to assist GPU cooling, and the Port 80 diagnostics display is located by the memory slots where it can’t get blocked by a processor or graphics card heat sink."

Quoted from Tom's Hardware Six $220-280 Z77 Express-Based Motherboards, Reviewed

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77x-up5-th-z77a-gd80-z77-oc-formula,3305-12.html

Tom's Hardware did not like the Asus P877-V Pro.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-extreme6-z77a-gd65-z77h2-a2x,3187-22.html

Thanks for this. It doesn't look like it will be able to hold 3 GTX 690s though, correct?

 

[appletoo]

If you have your heart set on the 3 way SLI, I would ditch the thunderbolt and get a bigger EATX board like the Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 with ridiculous amount of power phases for overclocking. Or aim a little cheaper with the G1 Sniper by gigabyte or the ROG Boards Asus puts out (both of which are gimmicky but still solid boards for features).

Or ditch the third card and get the UP4 TH if you want a slimmed down board or the UP5 TH if you want the extras.

The last idea I could give you, is wait for the Intel Haswell chip series where thunderbolt is native on the boards and you will have a lot more variety.

There just aren't that many Thunderbolt boards in existence since it's more of a preventative measure at this point in case the feature explodes in popularity and the price drops to where it can significantly become apart of our lives.