HP Thunderbolt 3 PCIe 2-port I/O Card

[Caudax]

Hi all,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, I'm not in any way an expert in building or upgrading PCs:

If I buy an HP Thunderbolt 3 PCIe 2-port I/O Card will I be able to use it in an HP Z820?

Many thanks!

[DGroves]

the issue/problem with the z820 is that it had thunderbolt 2 added late in the design cycle, as such it uses two usb type headers on the motherboard for the card to motherboard  connection instead of later designs that use only a 5 pin header

the main issue to using a thunderbolt 2 (or 3) addin card on any system is that each motherboard maker uses a diffrent pin connection on the board

in theory, if you could id what the TBolt pins on the motherboard do you should/might be able to connect the card........the problem is that there is almost no documentation on the motherboard TBolt header from most venders so it's just about impossible to connect the TBolt card to the motherboard on systems like the z820

however if you have the HP TBolt 2 card AND cable, and access to a electronics tech you might be able to have him give it a go a determining which pin does what on the z820 motherboard in reguards to the TBolt signal lines