What's the name of the motherboard I have and can it support a Thunderbolt 3 input?

[blackadder2]

I'm switching from Mac to PC and have ordered a desktop as detailed below. I hadn't considered whether I would be able to connect my Universal Audio Thunderbolt 3 interface to it.

So, what is the name of my motherboard, and can it support a Thunderbolt 3 input? Thanks.

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• HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop TG01-2170m CTO
• 21C1 Cycle AV
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Super (6 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
• 1TB SSD storage
• No HDD
• HP black wired keyboard with volume control and wired optical mouse kit
• BU RCTO UMA PAV GAM TG01-2 B550A US
• McAfee Livesafe (30 day)
• 16 GB DDR4-3200 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB)
• Realtek Canary ac 2x2 +Bluetooth 5 M.2 2230 PCI-e+USB WW with 2 Antennas
• No Additional Office Software
• Shadow black front bezel, Acid Green Chrome logo with 400W Power supply
• Windows 11 Home 64 Plus
• OSLOC US
• AMD Ryzen™ 5 5600G (3.9 GHz up to 4.4 GHz , 16 MB L3 cache, 6 cores)
• FLAG EPEAT
• FLAG ENERGY STAR Qualified
• DIB Omen Command Center Flyer US
• XBOX Game Pass DA ULT 1M
• WARR 1/1/0 US
• CKIT HP CTO PAV 21C1 US

[NonSequitur777]

@blackadder2,

Your motherboard's p/n is L56021-605 ("ASSY,MBD, Erica6, AMD Cezanne PROM,WIN").

Link: HP PartSurfer

I am looking into your Thunderbolt 3 interface question.

[EDIT:] If you're referring to installing a Thunderbolt 3 PCIe 2-port I/O card, I don't see why you couldn't -to be confirmed by an HP Expert such as @Paul_Tikkanen or @old_geekster.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[blackadder2]

NS777- Thank you very much for your reply. Thank you also for looking into the Thunderbolt question. From what I've gleaned elsewhere, the motherboard must contain a "Thunderbolt header" to be able to install a Thunderbolt PCIe card. I'd previously looked at the "Erica6" specs, and not being expert with this stuff, that didn't tell me whether such was possible.

[NonSequitur777 · Accepted solution]

@blackadder2,

Upon looking a bit deeper into the Thunderbolt 3 question, it appears a T3 card requires a PCIe x4 slot.  An Erica6 MOBO only has one PCIe Gen 3 x16 and one PCIe Gen 3 x1 slot: HP Desktop PCs - Motherboard Specifications, Erica6 | HP® Customer Support.  I assume you're using the PCIe x16 slot for a GPU.

Therefore, I'm inclined -or rather disinclined to believe at this point that a T3 card is compatible with this MOBO -again, looking for the aforementioned HP Experts to weigh in.

Kind Regards,

NS777

[blackadder2]

Well, the PCIe x16 is listed as an "expansion slot," so I thought that meant it was not being used by the GPU listed in the specs. And I did read in an article that some Thunderbolt cards can use x16 as opposed to just x4. BUT, my guess is that you're right and that ultimately it's just not compatible with this MOBO. Also would love to hear from said experts.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi,

I agree with @NonSequitur777 's opinion that unless you removed the graphics card, which you probably wouldn't want to do, a Thunderbolt expansion card would not be supported.

Only the HP business-class desktops come with PCIe x4 expansion slots (that usually look like a second PCIe x16 slot which is wired as PCIe x4).

That's how all of my HP business desktops are configured, but my Dell business desktops do have the shorter length PCIe x 4 slots.

[blackadder2]

Thank you.

IDK if this pertains to your answer, but I read that Thunderbolt expansion cards generally are model-specific, e.g., there are some designed for other, different types of desktops perhaps such as those you mention.

I bought (and am eagerly awaiting) this PC for gaming, so it's not a huge deal that I can't use my current music recording interface with it. I do still have my Macbook Pro for that (yuck.). 🙂

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You would have to look up the specs on a card you are interested in.

I did see a universal Audio thunderbolt card, but that was also for a specific configuration.

Universal Audio Thunderbolt 3 Option Card for Rackmount TBOC-3 (bhphotovideo.com)

This model seems to be limited to certain HP business class workstations.

HP Thunderbolt 3 PCIe 2-Port I/O Card 3UU05AA B&H Photo Video (bhphotovideo.com)

Dell sells them too.