GA-Z97X-UD7 TH - rev 1, is it discontinued?

[fuma]

I'm building a hackintosh for a musician that wanted a thunderbolt I/O, and we were waiting for Black Friday / CM to get some decent deals on components, but apparently waited too long... the motherboard has sold out almost everywhere.

Does anyone have any insight as to a refresh? I'm wondering if there is maybe a new rev 2 of the board, or if they are discontinuing it? I noticed all the new x99 boards are "thunderbolt ready", but they are overkill for a music workstation.

Thanks for any info

~fuma



(this is a very old signature)

[felinepc]

Re: GA-Z97X-UD7 TH - rev 1, is it discontinued?

I'm building a hackintosh for a musician that wanted a thunderbolt I/O, and we were waiting for Black Friday / CM to get some decent deals on components, but apparently waited too long... the motherboard has sold out almost everywhere.

Does anyone have any insight as to a refresh? I'm wondering if there is maybe a new rev 2 of the board, or if they are discontinuing it? I noticed all the new x99 boards are "thunderbolt ready", but they are overkill for a music workstation.

Thanks for any info

~fuma



(this is a very old signature)

That is correct. The board has been discontinued by the manufacturer and this has been confirmed by our source. Not sure if there will be a rev2. Most likely not though. Gigabyte has a history of discontinuing UD7 series boards.

x99 isn't really that special in regards to Thunderbolt. "Ready" just means they have the onboard header for a Thunderbolt add-on card (most likely the ASUS Thunderbolt EX II, which also means you have to pay even more on top of the already expensive motherboard+CPU). Boards with this header have been available since Z87, and of course Z97. It's most commonly found on higher-end ASUS motherboards. The cheapest is Z97-A/AR. The add-on card itself is around $70. So with a Z97-A + EX II card it will end up costing about the same as the Gigabyte UD7 TH. Though it's not as clean as onboard, and the card has a single Thunderbolt 2 (plus a full size DisplayPort) as opposed to dual Thunderbolt 2 on the UD7.

The ASUS Z97-Delux NFC & WLC (not the regular plain Z97-Delux) has a better version of the add-on card bundled (ThunderboltEX II/DUAL, not sold separately), which does come with dual Thunderbolt 2 (plus 2 DisplayPorts, one is IN). It's the only other Z97 board that comes with the port bundled afaik. Apparently this board is quite over priced though it does come with a couple extra bells and whistles such as the Wi-Fi AC.

So as of now your best and cheapest bet is probably either going with Z97-A + ASUS single port Thunderbolt card, or try to score a used (or possibly new if lucky) one that's reasonably priced on eBay.

Hope this helps.