I'm upgrading my computer and am down to what I think is the final decision--the motherboard. I had decided on the Asus P6X58D Premium a while ago. However, the move I've investigated the black screens and missing textures associated with PMDG (and similar add-ons) in Windows 7, Asus motherboards and their sound drivers are a very common denominator. So I looked at other options and am left with these three:1. Asus P6X58D Premium: This looks like a very good motherboard and as such I'm still considering it. I'd be heart broken if my PMDG add-ons though reverted to a series of black textures and while I see a lot of fixes that work frequently for this, none of them seem to be 100%.2. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5: One of the more advanced X58 boards from gigabyte, but still old enough and widely used enough to have a good user base to judge. Does have some support for SATA 3 GB/s and USB 3.0, but it seems to have a little bit more difficulty with RAM compatability (although, if anyone can tell me that my planned RAM will work for sure with this board, that get's crossed out). However, even ignoring RAM compatability there seems to be little above and beyond the UD3R board (minus SATA 3 and USB 3.0 that are of limited availability right now) to justify the extra $90-100.3. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R: The cheapest of the three and it looks like a good solid board. A little bit less in the bells and whistles department compared to options 1 and 2, but seems to overall be well recieved by users and works well. It (as does #2) have some layout issues excluding the use of a PCI-E x1 slot near the CPU, but the only cards I'll be adding is a PCI-E x16 video card and a regular PCI sound card. Probably the best overall option, but I do also worry a little bit about the number of boards that users (at least on Newegg review) that showed up DOA. I know it's an issue no matter what board I get though.I've used both Asus and Gigabyte boards in the past and I have good luck with both. The rest of the system will be:Intel i7-920 (plans to overclock to 3.8ish GHz, will be using the Megahelm cooler)Motherboard TBDCorsair XMS3 3x2GB 1333 RAMGTX 285/1GBCorsair 750W PSU2xDVD/DVD-RW (SATA)3x7200 RPM SATA HDWindows 7 64 bit Professional.So bottom line, anyone have input on my dilemna? Either personal experience or general comments on the boards? Thanks.Eric

I've been using exclusively Gigabyte motherboards for a year or so now and have been very pleased with them. 2x P45-UD3Ls and a P35-DS3L. If you want rock-solid stability go with the UD3R. If you'd rather gamble a bit on stability and get the newer features (SATA 6G and USB 3.0) get the UD5.

I'm upgrading my computer and am down to what I think is the final decision--the motherboard. I had decided on the Asus P6X58D Premium a while ago. However, the move I've investigated the black screens and missing textures associated with PMDG (and similar add-ons) in Windows 7, Asus motherboards and their sound drivers are a very common denominator. So I looked at other options and am left with these three:1. Asus P6X58D Premium: This looks like a very good motherboard and as such I'm still considering it. I'd be heart broken if my PMDG add-ons though reverted to a series of black textures and while I see a lot of fixes that work frequently for this, none of them seem to be 100%.2. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5: One of the more advanced X58 boards from gigabyte, but still old enough and widely used enough to have a good user base to judge. Does have some support for SATA 3 GB/s and USB 3.0, but it seems to have a little bit more difficulty with RAM compatability (although, if anyone can tell me that my planned RAM will work for sure with this board, that get's crossed out). However, even ignoring RAM compatability there seems to be little above and beyond the UD3R board (minus SATA 3 and USB 3.0 that are of limited availability right now) to justify the extra $90-100.3. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R: The cheapest of the three and it looks like a good solid board. A little bit less in the bells and whistles department compared to options 1 and 2, but seems to overall be well recieved by users and works well. It (as does #2) have some layout issues excluding the use of a PCI-E x1 slot near the CPU, but the only cards I'll be adding is a PCI-E x16 video card and a regular PCI sound card. Probably the best overall option, but I do also worry a little bit about the number of boards that users (at least on Newegg review) that showed up DOA. I know it's an issue no matter what board I get though.I've used both Asus and Gigabyte boards in the past and I have good luck with both. The rest of the system will be:Intel i7-920 (plans to overclock to 3.8ish GHz, will be using the Megahelm cooler)Motherboard TBDCorsair XMS3 3x2GB 1333 RAMGTX 285/1GBCorsair 750W PSU2xDVD/DVD-RW (SATA)3x7200 RPM SATA HDWindows 7 64 bit Professional.So bottom line, anyone have input on my dilemna? Either personal experience or general comments on the boards? Thanks.Eric

Eric,The P6X58D is a great board, not the best layout, but it is good and the board supports overclocking very very well, the latest Bios supports the new 6-core i7 980X. The board is selling very well and garnering a lot of support so that is a good sign.As for the sound issues, if you're in doubt you might consider what I have done. I Installed a decent sound card in the third PCIEx16 slot far away from the CPU. Though the integrated sound was good, I was forced into adding the sound card due to some Audio work that the integrated chip just isnt capable of. This might be an option for the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3RMB as well (using the 3rd PCIE16 for a PCIEx1 card)Frankly I love this board, it has been one of the most hassle free builds for me. If that is a 920-DO, you will be able to 4Ghz and up with that Megahalem, a good 1200 rpm fan is all you need. Quiet and fast, you will enjoy.

Eric,The P6X58D is a great board, not the best layout, but it is good and the board supports overclocking very very well, the latest Bios supports the new 6-core i7 980X. The board is selling very well and garnering a lot of support so that is a good sign.As for the sound issues, if you're in doubt you might consider what I have done. I Installed a decent sound card in the third PCIEx16 slot far away from the CPU. Though the integrated sound was good, I was forced into adding the sound card due to some Audio work that the integrated chip just isnt capable of. This might be an option for the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3RMB as well (using the 3rd PCIE16 for a PCIEx1 card)Frankly I love this board, it has been one of the most hassle free builds for me. If that is a 920-DO, you will be able to 4Ghz and up with that Megahalem, a good 1200 rpm fan is all you need. Quiet and fast, you will enjoy.

Do you mind if I ask if you've used PMDG or similarly complex addons (LDS, Captain Sim...) without these black textures? Just trying to get a sense how prevelent this problem is.

Do you mind if I ask if you've used PMDG or similarly complex addons (LDS, Captain Sim...) without these black textures? Just trying to get a sense how prevelent this problem is.

Not at all, good questions....Loaded and ran the following with no issues or problems to report:Probably the most demanding is the combo of CS-727 pro over Aerosoft Manhattan with multiple cloud layers, panned every view including all exterior and interior cabin views, no graphic or sound issues.Sceneries: Mega-series - whole lower half of CA, Hawaii, and Reno. The already mentioned Aerosoft Manhattan, SFran, VFR London, and FlyTampa HongKong.AC: PMDG-MD11 (not yet installed), Posky 777, CS-727-pro, AS-F104, AS-XB70, Tons of free ware and betas not yet installed.Currently I am developing a very large scenery project of more than 3000 sq ml, in 13cm/pix resolution and am just loving the processing power of the rig while it crunches 120GB of data....all ways keep a fire extinguisher near buy...Really though, the most stress is over Manhattan, clear weather, if traffic is anywhere near or above 20%, it takes a real toll, great test of system performance. I have been eyeing the PMDG 747, I'll try to report back when I install both and are run. Paul

Well Paul, I just hope I can trust you ;-) I changed my order from the Gigabyte's UD5 to the ASUS P6X58D Premium, and I hope to have similar experience.That said, I have never really been disappointed by Asus, only the last time, the P5Q, my current board, somehow has this stupid 400Mhz limit, which if crossed, gives really weird errors, although not even getting too hot (yes, I tried Voltages and stuff). For instance, OCCT and Prime95 totally stable for hours. Try unpacking WinRAR, CRC CRC CRC... Clock to 400, no CRC error. Totally weird.Anyway, if I manage to kick the P6X58D to 200mhz stable, I'll be getting 4.2 out of 920, which will be totally fine with me - if the 920 holds it that is!Plus it has a nice looks and no more IDE (yuck) and I won't be having any layout problems, since my GPU will have watercooling (GPU takes 1 slot, no more).

Well Paul, I just hope I can trust you ;-) I changed my order from the Gigabyte's UD5 to the ASUS P6X58D Premium, and I hope to have similar experience.That said, I have never really been disappointed by Asus, only the last time, the P5Q, my current board, somehow has this stupid 400Mhz limit, which if crossed, gives really weird errors, although not even getting too hot (yes, I tried Voltages and stuff). For instance, OCCT and Prime95 totally stable for hours. Try unpacking WinRAR, CRC CRC CRC... Clock to 400, no CRC error. Totally weird.Anyway, if I manage to kick the P6X58D to 200mhz stable, I'll be getting 4.2 out of 920, which will be totally fine with me - if the 920 holds it that is!Plus it has a nice looks and no more IDE (yuck) and I won't be having any layout problems, since my GPU will have watercooling (GPU takes 1 slot, no more).

Great! I know you are really going to like it, I havent seen an Asus board take off as fast as this one with so many compliments and so little complaints in a long time. X58 chipsets and heat have long been an issue and I usually remove all the heatsinks to replace the crap thermal tape and replace with AS5 and new SS fasteners with springs and nylon washers, not this time around.What Memory will you be using and is that a Custom H2O or a kit?PaulL01

Just curious: why did you not look at EVGA MOBOs?

Great! I know you are really going to like it, I havent seen an Asus board take off as fast as this one with so many compliments and so little complaints in a long time. X58 chipsets and heat have long been an issue and I usually remove all the heatsinks to replace the crap thermal tape and replace with AS5 and new SS fasteners with springs and nylon washers, not this time around.What Memory will you be using and is that a Custom H2O or a kit?PaulL01

Corsair XMS3 Dominator 1600 CL7-7-7-20 6GB KitCustom H2O, Nexxxos XP cooler, but no cooling for the mainboard separately. Good case cooling, Noctua fans.

Thanks for the information all. If you do try the PMDG aircraft at anypoint I'd love to hear how they do. Sounds like this clearly isn't system wide thing at least with Asus boards.

Just curious: why did you not look at EVGA MOBOs?

Really just based on previous good experience with Gigabyte and Asus. I could spend years looking through different motherboards, so I picked these two manufacturers.

Just curious: why did you not look at EVGA MOBOs?

As a sidenote: EVGA mobos are overpriced, performance-wise very much the same or even slower than the boards we just discussed.See this: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article/2009...li_classified/5

First review of the ASUS P6X58D is up if it helps, not the best overclocking guide but not a bad review:http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1765&pageID=8241

As a sidenote: EVGA mobos are overpriced, performance-wise very much the same or even slower than the boards we just discussed.See this: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article/2009...li_classified/5

I disagree completely. I went over a couple mobos in my local shop before I decided on the eVGA X58 board. I liked the robust voltage regulation components, the layout is well thought out, and their support is top-notch based on my previous dealings with them. They support overclocking their motherboards and video cards, and their warranty support in the US is excellent. As far as price, it was less expensive than the ASUS P6T Deluxe and a couple other mid-range boards.FWIW, the review you posted is for the eVGA X58 Classified board, which is the beefed-up extreme version of the board. Sure, it's pricier, as are all the other extreme enthusiast class mobos.My eVGA X58 has me running nice and stable up to 4.55 GHz. No complaints at all. And they just released a BIOS for the this board to use the forthcoming Gulftown i7-980 6-core CPU.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Alright, Bob, I take you are right. I have no experience with eVGA, and I just checked the prices, they are on-par with other similar boards. Only classified sticks out a bit...My problem on choosing the board is I want to be sure it will OC up to 200mhz without much fuss, as I want to run the 920 @ 4.2Ghz.I had Gigabyte EX58-UD5 ordered, so I changed the order to P6X58D. Now seeing that it might not even be a "gamers" board, more or less workstation, and am I really gonna need USB3.0 and SATA3 in next 3 years? Besides I would have to wait for it a while...I have also, price-wise, been checking on the eVGA X58 SLI, it costs about 245

so I changed the order to P6X58D. Now seeing that it might not even be a "gamers" board, more or less workstation"The eVGA board had trouble dealing with failed overclocks, it would usually not even get to the BIOS and I had to clear the CMOS every time."You know, it's those small things that make me think!

The P6X58D is compared to the ASUS Rampage and is a very extremely overclock friendly i7 board, sans the onboardvoltage leads of the Rampage and yet it is a mid priced I7 board. The cool running chipset was also one of the main reasons why I started looking at this board compared to the issues with the EVGA Boards. What makes you say workstation, layout?