# Thunderbolt Apollo Twin with Windows 10 machine?



## composerguy78 (Jul 30, 2018)

Does anyone know if there is a way or a recommended way of having a thunderbolt audio interface work with a Windows machine which does not have a built in Thunderbolt port? 

I have an PC I made myself which has an ASRock x299 board in it.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

Felix


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## Shad0wLandsUK (Jul 30, 2018)

composerguy78 said:


> Does anyone know if there is a way or a recommended way of having a thunderbolt audio interface work with a Windows machine which does not have a built in Thunderbolt port?
> 
> I have an PC I made myself which has an ASRock x299 board in it.
> 
> ...


Ahh, is this the Mac version of the Apollo Twin?
I notice you have the thread open about moving to Cubase on Windows from Logic Pro X?
Because I am not sure that those interfaces are compatible with Windows.

As I contacted UA about why they do not supply the USB 3.0 revisions of the interface for mac and they said that they only provide TB for mac. Think you may have to get a Windows version of the audio interface instead.
First port of call, to verify this would be UA support


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## composerguy78 (Jul 30, 2018)

Much appreciated! Thank you!

Felix


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## wst3 (Jul 30, 2018)

I have been chasing this dragon for a bit.

The hardware is not platform specific, but it certainly is interface specific, and different interfaces work well with one platform or the other. It is pretty much a done deal with the Mac and Thunderbolt. Windoze favors USB3, but there is some level of support for Thunderbolt.

It comes down to the drivers and the hardware that the drivers talk to. UA will help you sort this out. It seems to be their favorite topic<G>!


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## will_m (Jul 30, 2018)

You can use UA with TB on Windows. They have TB drivers for the Apollo range but you need a motherboard with TB built in or you can use an add in card. AsRock make this one:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/product.asp?Model=Thunderbolt 3 AIC

You also need a TB header on the MB. Also if the add in card or onboard TB is TB3 then you will need an adapter to go to the TB2 interface. I believe the UA Arrow is the only TB3 interface at present. UA also announced an adapter card for the apollo range that turns a TB2 interface into a TB3 one.

It gets a bit complicated, there is an info sheet somewhere on the UA site that says what will and won't work, if you look on the forums though there are lots of people with working set-ups that aren't officially supported.


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## composerguy78 (Jul 30, 2018)

This is really helpful thank you!


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## Shad0wLandsUK (Jul 30, 2018)

composerguy78 said:


> This is really helpful thank you!


Can you share which model motherboard you have and I can look at whether it has TB if you are unsure?


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## Shad0wLandsUK (Jul 30, 2018)

Nice find @will_m


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## CoffeeLover (Jul 31, 2018)

Im using apollo twin mk2 and it is both mac and pc
ive tested it on a macbook but i use it on my win10 machine
motherboard only needs to be qualified with thunderbolt add-inn card
and i am using a gigabyte thunderbolt3 alpine ridge card
you also need an adapter, Startech thunderbolth 3 to thunderbolt adapter

also what asrock x299 board is it?


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## chimuelo (Aug 3, 2018)

ASRock has been way ahead of others in regards to TBolt.
Look back at the first X board extreme 11AC.
Dual TBolt 2 long before others.

I love using DSP Accelerator cards because it makes more cycles available for synths.
Especially like my 18 SHARC Processors because they are synths, and FX, and a Modular and Mixers.

I can use a lowly Xeon E3 1275 vrs.6/C236 and barely use 2 Cores @ 45%.
My DSP Rack still uses Proprietary TBolt 1....

Can’t imagine what TBolt 3 and MADI can do.


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