Question

I am looking to build a computer for a friend with the primary use of recording audio using either the Quantum or Quantum 2 device (he has not purchased it yet). Just wondering if anyone has experience with this motherboard (am looking at the ITX version). It is thunderbolt 3 and I understand we will need the Startech thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter as well. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The ASRock Z390 is ThunderBolt compliant and the Quantum is fully Thunderbolt certified.

It is recommended to use StarTech brand ThunderBolt adapters and or cables with PC computers.

Apple brand with Apple computers.

Just make sure that you fully update your computer with all Windows 10 updates and all Z390 system BIOS, ThunderBolt, firmware and chipset drivers.

Answer 2

I have this motherboard and it still requires you to purchase the Gigabyte Thunderbolt addon card as the interface will not natively work in the motherboards TB 3.0 ports.  The add-in cards are on amazon and are called either GC-Titan Ridge or GC-Alpine Ridge.  This will go into a PCIE slot the you will need to connect the internal TB data cable from the GC add in card to the TB header on the motherboard(check manual for location).  Hope this helps!

Answer 3

chrishagerman,

An add-on TB card is not necessary for the AsRock Z390 series.

I have the Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac version of your motherboard (same exact board just smaller) which does NOT have a TB header.

1st, update the bios on your motherboard!

Then, if you use a StarTech TB3 to TB2 adapter along with a StarTech TB cable it WILL work.

If the StarTech TB3 products do not work for you then the secret is this.....

Buy the official APPLE TB3 to TB2 adapter and an official APPLE TB2 cable and hook it up to a MAC to update (even if only to force the same newest firmware) and then hook it back up to your PC using the StarTech adapter and StarTech cable.

Even if you did go down the road of using a TB card, it would be recommended to ONLY use the official AsRock TB card here:  https://amzn.to/2TYES0G

AsRock Z390 series motherboard with Quantum using a StarTech adapter and StarTech cable WORKS 100% !