UA Apollo 16 / Thunderbolt 3 card : What the hell do I do?!?!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chip Whitley
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Chip Whitley

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Hi folk, I'm stepping into the digital realm in my studio right now with the acquisition of the Universal Audio Apollo 16 Analog Digital converter. In looking at what else I need to make this unit work for me, I'm wondering if anybody has any advice on which Thunderbolt PCI card to get? I'm trying to go cheap as I can for right now and am looking at "Gigabyte (Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Card Components Other GC-Alpine Ridge". First comment in on the reviews says they got it for the same exact thing I am using it for and it was great. BUT, someone a little lower in the comments says your motherboard has to have a 'THB_C' pin on it for this card to work. To my eyes, my motherboard does not have that slot available. So my question here is, what the hell do I need to do to get this thing to work?

The computer I am using it with is not connected to the internet and has nothing on it except Reaper for a DAW and only whatever is necessary for Windows 10 to function. It is only used for Audio work. I don't know much about computers so I don't know what the hell is going on here. If anyone can help me, anything is much appreciated as I am looking to get this solved quickly. Just from right clicking in the My Computer area, I can tell you the following details:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E7500 @ 2.93Ghz
RAM: 4.00GB

If there's anything else I can do or further details you need please let me know, I can open the computer up and look inside and see what's what or take pictures or whatever I need. Thanks for any advice
 
The critical thing appears to be the motherboard. What is it? In most cases,myouncould simply send the motherboard details to the card supplier and say will it Work?

My own limited experience is that reviews for things like plug in boards is that they are go or no go products. They do very little, and have very few user 'facilities' so success rarely depends on how good they are, but a series of random events unique to your system. Why not just buy it, and return it if it doesn't work? Assuming your location allows that as a consumer right? If you ask, and they say yes, it could still not work. The only accurate response would be a no. I'd also suggest a bit more ram would be very useful for processing audio on a PC. All you will lose is a bit of time. Windows 10 will annoy you if you run music and audio work on it, as most of the software really needs connection. So many of my plugins continually get updated. Small and frequent updates rather than the old fashioned big ones. Cubase, for example, tells you each start if there are extra facilities available, and while you sill need to take care, the Internet connection now provides me with new stuff all the time. The occasional intent connection won't pick up on all the advantages. A couple of my everyday sample packages constantly add new free sounds, or tell me about new sounds I can download. I'd miss this greatly.

If I'm in doubt nowadays, I just buy online with a credit card, and return things that don't work. Frankly, getting absolutes from the manufacturers is pretty much impossible.
 
Thunderbolt needs to be supported by the motherboard, and non-Mac motherboards rarely support it. There have been a few, but most motherboard manufacturers seem to have left Thunderbolt in the dust and concentrated on USB 3.0 and 3.1 instead.

All of the add-in cards I can find all require a Thunderbolt header on the motherboard, so I get the impression that you're out of luck unless you either upgrade your motherboard (which may require additional replacement of CPU and RAM because Core 2 Duo is old and good luck finding a mobo to support it anymore) or move to an interface whose connectivity is natively supported in the PC world (most likely USB 2.0 on an older machine like yours).
 
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