Thunderbolt’s delivery has badly lagged its promise, a familiar state of affairs for those around for the rise and fall of FireWire. As the rest of us wait for Apple’s Thunderbolt 2-equipped Mac Pro, another Intel partner, Asus, has delivered the Z87 Deluxe Quad, a Haswell-powered motherboard with a large number of ports and an even bigger price tag, $350.

Asus Z87-Deluxe Quad Features:
— 2 x Intel Thunderbolt 2 ports
— 1 x HDMI port
— 4 x DIMM slots
— 3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 slots
— 10 x SATA 6Gbit/s ports
— 8 x USB 3.0 ports with USB 3.0 Boost
— 8 x USB 2.0 ports
— ATX form factor

And, if you’re a CustoMac (a.k.a. Hackintosh) kind of guy, some folks have managed to get Mountain Lion running on the Asus Z97 Deluxe Dual, an earlier Thunderbolt 1 version of the above mobo. Of course, OS X doesn’t yet officially offer kernal-level Haswell support — Mavericks is expected in the Fall.

Good things, like the 2013 Mac Pro with six Thunderbolt ports, will come to those that wait…

What’s your take?

Via AnandTech

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