ASUS' Thunderbolt EX Upgrade Card for 7-series Motherboards

Only two members of ASUS' Z77 stack feature integrated Thunderbolt support: the P8Z77-V Premium and the P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt. As the interface is still fairly new and the controllers still relatively expensive, ASUS didn't want to burden the price of all of its 7-series motherboards by adding Thunderbolt across the lineup. Recognizing the value in supporting the interface however, ASUS offers a Thunderbolt upgrade path for many of its other 7-series boards.

If your board is in the table above under the Thunderbolt/EX supported header, then you'll be able to find one of these TB Headers on your motherboard. ASUS will sell you a Thunderbolt EX card that plugs into a PCIe slot (it's a physical/electrical x4 device), connects to this header, and plugs into the DisplayPort output on your mothebroard. The expansion card features a single Thunderbolt port that you can use after completing the requisite steps. The card itself is home to a single port, dual-channel Cactus Ridge Thunderbolt controller. The external routing of DisplayPort is necessary to provide DP pass-through functionality via the Thunderbolt port, but it does admittedly take away from the clean single cable appeal of native Thunderbolt.