Chasing The Single Cable Dream

[freebie]

Budget (including currency): N/a

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 140hz gaming, CAD modelling, Programming, a lot of YouTube watching...

 

Hi,

 

I have multiple machines at home, and I'd like to have them all easily dockable via a single thunderbolt / usb-c cable. All my devices, other then my gaming desktop, are already good to go.

 

I want to upgrade my current desktop as minimally as possible to support thunderbolt out (display and peripherals). I've done some research and have a plan, but I was hoping to get some feedback before I buy the stuff and realise it doesn't work, or I could have done a simpler/cheaper upgrade path.

 

Here is my current hardware:

 

* Monitor 1: DELL U2718Q 27-Inch (2560x1440, 144Hz)

* Monitor 2: Dell S2719DGF 27 Inch (3840x2160, 60hz)

* Dock: CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4/USB4

* Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI AMD Socket AM4 Mini ITX

* GPU: EVGA GTX GEFORCE 2070 SUPER

 

My current plan is:

* I have a spare M.2 port on the rear of that motherboard I could convert to a PCIe with something like this M.2 Key M to PCIe x4 NVMe Adapter Cable.

* Then attach a GC-TITAN Ridge thunderbolt add-in card.

* Buy some short display cables to go from the output available on the GPU to mini-DP in on the admin card

* Pray monitors can display at full res, and max refresh rate

 

I've found googling around this subject quite hard, with not too much discussion on it. It's also a little bit of a frankinstine project, so hoping to get some feedback on anyone with some insight if this looks like a promising solution, or if any compatibility issues.

 

Happy to give any more details, if relevant. tried to minimise the info dump to just the hardware components I think are relevant.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

[PC HEROES]

53 minutes ago, freebie said:

Budget (including currency): N/a

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 140hz gaming, CAD modelling, Programming, a lot of YouTube watching...

 

Hi,

 

I have multiple machines at home, and I'd like to have them all easily dockable via a single thunderbolt / usb-c cable. All my devices, other then my gaming desktop, are already good to go.

 

I want to upgrade my current desktop as minimally as possible to support thunderbolt out (display and peripherals). I've done some research and have a plan, but I was hoping to get some feedback before I buy the stuff and realise it doesn't work, or I could have done a simpler/cheaper upgrade path.

 

Here is my current hardware:

 

* Monitor 1: DELL U2718Q 27-Inch (2560x1440, 144Hz)

* Monitor 2: Dell S2719DGF 27 Inch (3840x2160, 60hz)

* Dock: CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4/USB4

* Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI AMD Socket AM4 Mini ITX

* GPU: EVGA GTX GEFORCE 2070 SUPER

 

My current plan is:

* I have a spare M.2 port on the rear of that motherboard I could convert to a PCIe with something like this M.2 Key M to PCIe x4 NVMe Adapter Cable.

* Then attach a GC-TITAN Ridge thunderbolt add-in card.

* Buy some short display cables to go from the output available on the GPU to mini-DP in on the admin card

* Pray monitors can display at full res, and max refresh rate

 

I've found googling around this subject quite hard, with not too much discussion on it. It's also a little bit of a frankinstine project, so hoping to get some feedback on anyone with some insight if this looks like a promising solution, or if any compatibility issues.

 

Happy to give any more details, if relevant. tried to minimise the info dump to just the hardware components I think are relevant.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Hello... I found this to be rather challenging. I was able to find a AM4 ITX Motherboard that has Thunderbolt 3 in the Rear

I/O Panel. I'm not sure if you need more than 1 but if you do then I would look into any of the ASUS PRO-Art Motherboards. All of them have 2 Thunderbolt Ports on the Rear I/O and a Port on the Main Board for a Add-On Card but all the PRO-Art Boards are ATX. That being said you did not say that you needed a Full Build but I did just that. Please have a look and let me know what you think.

 

I have been building PCs for over 30 years so if you have any questions please ask. For future communication I use Discord for much faster response times as I have it open 24/7. Here is my Discord: Wizardsnapper#2772 I am also available if you need help before, during, or after the Build process on Discord through Voice or Video Chat. I can be with you while you build your new PC if you need me to be.

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/pXZ9Xk

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£265.99 @ MoreCoCo)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright AXP120-X67 59 CFM CPU Cooler  (£35.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  (£237.57 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB RT 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£87.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GAMING X SLIM GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB Video Card  (£479.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify 2 Nano Mini ITX Tower Case  (£92.51 @ Clove Technology)
Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£117.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Fractal Design Dynamic X2 GP 105.9 CFM 140 mm Fan  (£28.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 Slim PWM PST 42.1 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack  (£20.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1534.51 

[freebie]

Thanks for the effort @PC HEROES. I had also found that motherboard, but unfortunately it only has a single display port in, so the thunderbolt output could only drive a single monitor. I'm looking to drive 2 monitors.

[PC HEROES]

49 minutes ago, freebie said:

Thanks for the effort @PC HEROES. I had also found that motherboard, but unfortunately it only has a single display port in, so the thunderbolt output could only drive a single monitor. I'm looking to drive 2 monitors.

Do you need to have an ITX PC? If no then the ASUS PRO-Art Motherboards have 2 but they are Full ATX.

 

ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI

 

ProArt Z790-CREATOR WIFI

[brob]

Asus has a number of Intel motherboards with built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports, including a mini-ITX. Of course it means upgrading the CPU and likely the CPU cooling. Not an inexpensive proposition.

 

[freebie]

yeah, as you say @brob, seems more expensive to go down this route in my current position; having to buy a motherboard and a new CPU. 

 

@PC HEROES doesn’t need to be ITX. Though I wasn’t able to find any AM4 socket boards with 2 video inputs from my searching. :(

[PC HEROES]

25 minutes ago, freebie said:

yeah, as you say @brob, seems more expensive to go down this route in my current position; having to buy a motherboard and a new CPU. 

 

@PC HEROES doesn’t need to be ITX. Though I wasn’t able to find any AM4 socket boards with 2 video inputs from my searching.

They do have them for AM4... Right here...

 

They have them both in the Type C Ports and in the Display Outputs on the Back I/O.

 

Asus ProArt B550-CREATOR ATX AM4 Motherboard

 

Asus ProArt X570-CREATOR WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard

 

I have been building PCs for over 30 years so if you have any questions please ask. For future communication I use Discord for much faster response times as I have it open 24/7. Here is my Discord: Wizardsnapper#2772 I am also available if you need help before, during, or after the Build process on Discord through Voice or Video Chat. I can be with you while you build your new PC if you need me to be.

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bP6N9c

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£265.99 @ MoreCoCo)
CPU Cooler: Asus ROG STRIX LC II ARGB 80.95 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£176.94 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus ProArt B550-CREATOR ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£248.79 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB RT 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£87.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus ProArt OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB Video Card  (£894.99 @ AWD-IT)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE G500A DRGB ATX Mid Tower Case  (£148.99 @ AWD-IT)
Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£117.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Phanteks M25-140 PWM D-RGB 104.62 CFM 140 mm Fan  (£15.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Total: £2125.68

[freebie]

@PC Helper_Buyer as far as I’m aware those are labelled only as a single display port input on those boards. So the Thunderbolt can only drive one display, which is a deal breaker for me unfortunately.

I did contact the support of one of these board manufactures to ask, just in case you could support multiple displays via a single display port in, but their support staff said it could only drive one.

 

thanks for your time / effort though. 
 

I will order the components I mentioned and pray it works. Will try remember to report back for anyone that might stumble on this in the future.