Thunderbolt 3 Expansion Card for HP Z8 G4 Workstation?

[tonyhasmith]

I'm needing to add a Thunderbolt 3 Expansion Card to my Z8 G4 workstation and I'm wondering what is compatible.

I'm looking at this:

Gigabyte GC-ALPINE RIDGE Thunderbolt3 Certified PCI-E Expansion card Rev 2.0

https://tinyurl.com/y9uqc9ys

Is it going to work?  Does HP have a thunderbolt 3 card?

[TheOldMan]

According to this posting

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=376-006B-00001

which lists the supported motherboards, it seems this is a very limited application and will not work as advertised for the Z8 G4 workstation.

From what I have seen in the listings, the motherboard support is very limited and most of manufacturers'  adapter will only work in their line of motherboard.

Here is a thread on the Asus adapter

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Thunderbolt-3-card...

[tonyhasmith]

So... which card is does HP suggest for adding Thunderbolt 3 to the Z8 G4 workstation? Does HP make a Thunderbolt 3 card? I'd rather just buy that.

So, far from past posts, you've said the Asus only works for Asus motherboard and to try Gigabyte, but now you're saying that the Gigabyte won't work and I should try the Asus? I'm confused.

Thank you.

[TheOldMan]

Actually that is not what I am saying.  The adapter manufacturer only say their card is compatible with only a certain product line of their own motherboards.  In my research, there were no HP cards mentioned in any of my searches.  There are HP computers that have the Thunderbolt 3 ports buitin but I did not see any addon cards.  That is probably because the OEM  motherboards engineered to accept the new hardware were only released as a new model that had it when it was bought.

OEM rarely will engineer a new component for an existing product line, but bring it out as a new item instead.

Since the PC in question is a Business model, they might think about giving in to an update for Thunderbolt 3 but I am not in the know on anything mentioned to date.

[wb2001]

@tonyhasmith,

Thunderbolt 3 is avaiable for that model. See here.  Look at slot 7 configuration on pg 6.

[tonyhasmith]

Thanks wb2001,

I bought the Z8 G4 workstation with the plan to add Thunderbolt 3 because of that exact slot conf on pg 6. I just need to know what Thunderbolt 3 expansion card is supported for this use by HP.

So far, I've been told that the 2 cards that I know of one from Asus and the other from Gigabyte, both aren't going to work and that HP doesn't have a PCIe card of it's own that I can buy. So, which is it?

I have 78 TB of 4k media I need to be able to connect to... 

[Nick-J]

For an HP Z8 G4, a Gigabyte Thunderbolt 3 card or an Asus Thunderbolt 3 card will not work. Thunderbolt cards have a cable running from the card to a connector on the motherboard making it very specific to the motherboard it was built for. Since the cables for these two cards have different connectors, they are incompatible with the Z8 G4 motherboard. There are possibly other technical reasons that these cards are incompatible. I don't know for sure.

The Thunderbolt 3 card for the Z8 G4 is slowly rolling out with a model number of 3UU05AA. If you can’t find one available for purchase now, I expect that you will be able to soon.

You can see a picture of it here: http://www8.hp.com/gr/el/products/oas/product-detail.html?oid=23128962

There is a QuickSpecs document available here: https://cdn.picturetools.de/Files/ProduktFiles/c06113165.pdf

As of right now, it is "Coming Soon" here: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1432667-REG/hp_3uu05aa_hunderbolt_3_pcie_2_port_i_o_card.html

This card is supported on the HP Z8 G4, HP Z6 G4, and HP Z4 G4. You can see that in the QuickSpecs document in the Compatibility section on page 1. It is not supported on any other platforms.

Hopefully this clears up a fair bit of misinformation and provides some answers.

[forgottenrebel]

It’s taken HP far to long to bring this TB3 card to market. Been two years since Asus did it. Better late than never but I still cannot find any real info yet. 

Ive owned every Z8xx series since my first Z800 but was waiting to get the new g4 Z8 until they finally get a TB3 solution together. There’s not much advantage over my current z840 at this point other than chip set.  I also prefer the old look much better. But when this card becomes available I’ll make the move. 

Would also have liked to see a few USB gen2 as default on all these new systems,  gen1 is just such a lame way to save a few pennies and piss off custoners already spending a fortune. 

[Nick-J]

It looks like you can buy the card now:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1432667-REG/hp_3uu05aa_hunderbolt_3_pcie_2_port_i_o_card.html