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Thunderbolt 3 Support
Hi Doc! I’ve been working from home for about a year. My work laptop is connected to a dual-monitor 180W docking station via Thunderbolt. The dock and all peripherals are mine, but the laptop belongs to the company. I want to use the setup off-hours by unplugging the Thunderbolt from the laptop and into a yet-to-be-built PC rig. How would I do that? I don’t need the extra power from the Thunderbolt. Do I just need to make sure the mobo I pick has USB-C?
–John
Otto
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: While Thunderbolt 3 is backward compatible with USB-C, USB-C isn’t compatible in return. That means you need to source a mobo with Thunderbolt 3 support, which typically means one of two things. First, some higher-end boards come with TB ports on the board—one example is ASRock’s X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Mini ITX TB3 ($210, http://amazon.com).
Others provide support for TB3 via an internal header that can be paired with a specific PCIe add-on card, usually from the same manufacturer and paired to specific chipsets—for example, Asus produces two separate cards. The ThunderboltEX 3 ($66, http://newegg.com) http://newegg.com) http://bestbuy.com). card works with older Intel chipsets, while the ThunderboltEX 3-TR card ($101, is designed for the newer Z490/ B460/H4670/B550 series mobos that have the 14-1 pin header, including the TUF Gaming Z490-Plus ($200,
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