Thinking this may be the year for a Thunderbolt PC build...

I think I might be ready for a new build, and I'm chewing on going Thunderbolt for my UAD Apollo Silverface that I currently run in Firewire mode. I already have the TB2 card on board the Apollo, and I am intrigued by the lower latency of Thunderbolt.
 
I'd be curious to hear any stories from those of you that have done a build like this. Here's a first pass at the primary equipment I'm considering:
 
1. GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel
2. Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530
3. G.SKILL TridentZ Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3400 (PC4 27200) Intel Z170 Platform Desktop Memory Model
 
I already have an SSD for my boot disk, but will probably throw in a couple of 1TB SSDs for all of my libraries in an effort to reduce the number of USB hard drives I currently use. They go wonkey every now and then and I think it's due to so many USB devices and hubs.

JonD
Did you see this recent thread?
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...-m3571119.aspx#3571167

 
I did thanks. I get the opinions on Thunderbolt in general, but I'm hoping to actually hear from some that have made the switch. I'm about due for an upgrade anyway; I wouldn't do this just to get Thunderbolt...

Great advice JonD thanks!

I'm thinking Thunderbolt has some legs, and if it gets widely adopted on PC ultimately USB 3 could suffer...

That's what I mean by adoption. If it starts to take off, the prices will come down. TB has the advantage that it is the standard on the Mac, so if peripheral manufactures could make one product that runs on both platforms that would be desirable. It would need a tipping point. If they could sell a PCIe card that would provide Thunderbolt on legacy systems and not require a new mobo, for example, I think it would catch fire.

It's important to understand that Thunderbolt provides (external) access to the PCIe bus.  
Nothing more/less
Under ideal circumstances, you can expect performance on-par with PCIe.
 
 
To achieve PCIe level performance, you have to meet all the following conditions:

• Running one of the latest Z170, Z270, or X99 motherboards that provide Thunderbolt-3 via USB-C port
• Running an up-to-date install of Win10
• Need a USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter
• Your audio interface needs full "PCIe via Thunderbolt" driver

 
Currently, only MOTU and UA have "PCIe via Thunderbolt" drivers that are actually available for Windows.
 
For a Mac user, Thunderbolt is critical.
On any current generation Mac, Thunderbolt is the *only* way to access the PCIe bus.
PC users have PCIe slots... so Thunderbolt is much less critical.
 
Thunderbolt is owned by Intel... so it won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

I've decided to built a new PC with Thunderbolt. Now just finalizing the details, but here's what I've got so far:
 
Gigabyte GA-Z170x Gaming 7 motherboard
G.Skill F4-3000 2x16GB (32GB total) DDR4 3000
Intel i7-7700k processor
Noctua NH-D15 6 heatpipe with dual fans
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 (I'm a gamer)
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 Power Supply
 
I'm going to consolidate a number of hard drives to a few 1TB SSD drives while I do this. I usually upgrade my existing system in my rack case but I decided to build a new machine from scratch so I can keep the old one going during the process. 
 
I welcome any input on the build...