Windows Thunderbolt previewed: A mighty potent port
Anandtech has had some playtime with among the first PC motherboards to natively support the tech.
The first ‘board to give the port, MSI’s Z77A-GD80, there are a couple of compromises to be made on the way to accommodate Thunderbolt. As an example, because it uses 1/2 the available PCIe channels, a few of the other connections – comparable to FireWire and SATA ports 7/8 – cannot be utilized in parallel, though that’s unlikely to be a deal-breaker since Thunderbolt can essentially replicate their functionality.