FYI- This is for anyone having audio dropouts "All of A Sudden".

My name is E.L. Mahon. I've been using Cakewalk products since 2001 [always the highest version available]. Anyway, although there are many fixes for the regular audio dropouts, sometimes those just DO NOT work, which is what happened to me recently. My system is a build from PCAudio Labs for my studio: specs--Rok Box MC 64S, 3.20GHz Intel Core i7-3930k - Intel X79 MB - 32GB DDR3-1600 Quad Channel [8x4GB] -  Triple Display Graphics Card [HD7770] - Optical Drive - Primary Drive 500GB SATA2 - Windows 8.1 x64 - Audio Drive 2TB SATA2 - Sample Drive 2TB SATA2 - 750 Watt Power Supply . My audio interface is the MAudio Project Mix firewire device.  Was using Sonar X3e at the time, now Sonar Platinum. 
Problem: Continuous dropouts while playback/record. Continuous dropouts either using synths or not using synths.
My remedies: Reinstalled SONAR [no fix] updated all drivers that were older [no fix] contacted synth companies for their assessments and problem solving [no fix] downloaded DPC Latency checker/monitor [found out that they are not compatible with Windows 8] Purchased a new firewire card [no fix] purchased a Focuserite 2i2 USB audio interface [no fix, this is when I knew that the problem was deeper since both firewire and USB had the same problem] Reinstalled Windows 8.1 and had to reinstall ALL of my SONAR/Synth software [no fix] purchased another Texas Instruments firewire card for my Project mix [no fix but got slightly better, FOR a WHILE] Updated my BIOS [no fix]
Problem Solved: I ran my motherboard cd and uploaded the original chipset drivers from GIGABYTE. Ran the update for the chipset drivers on the cd and found that I needed to update the drivers, especially the INF files that instructed the MB on what to do with the USB and PCI slots. This seemed to have worked.... Somewhere during the year something, either a Windows update or something got my system out of sync and it need to be corrected. 
HOPE THIS HELPS OTHERS.......
Note: This was put here for anyone having problems and had exhausted all other options. As for Pro DAW builders, PCAudioLabs is one of the top Pro studio DAW builders in existence. 

Dave,
Which motherboards do the pro DAW builders prefer ?
I am looking for a new one.
Michael

microapp
Dave,
Which motherboards do the pro DAW builders prefer ?
I am looking for a new one.
Michael

I don't know if they have said as its their expertise that is the value they add to build process, but I have seen a lot of references to good experiences with ASUS boards.  I have one, although when I bought it I didn't have the info I have now so it was more a happy accident, but it was replacing a Gigabyte board that died on me so I wasn't going back there.

Silent DAW? How cool is that?

So E.L. when you say Continuous dropouts, how often was it? Every few minutes? Any periods with no dropouts?
 
I've been using Cakewalk software since the DOS days. I got a computer from Studiocat 5 1/2 years ago. It has a Gigabyte EP45-DS3R motherboard. It's still my main DAW and I always had problems at times with dropouts and strange crashes out of the blue with XP and Win 7, Sonar 8.5, X3 and now Platinum.  Most of the time it's not severe, more like a few times a day or none for a few days.Yet a few times a month I get what I call dropout fever, dropouts every few seconds after hitting transport. I have to close and reopen Sonar to fix this, then it's ok.
 
Many times a dropout can be with 2 audio tracks already recorded and just recording some midi tracks and all of a sudden a dropout with no load on the computer at all. I've tried the regular optimization stuff. This post is sure making me suspect the Gigabyte motherboard, yet this one was bought 5 1/12 years ago, so I wonder if this is more prevalent in the newer models.
 
In the past I've gone to the Gigabyte website to get the latest updates and installed them. After reading this post, I got the motherboard CD and reinstalled the initial drivers and selected "download center" to update those to the latest ones. I hope this works.