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. 

Note - a lot of people have had issues with Gigabyte motherboards.  I think the professional DAW builders shy away from them.
 
Hopefully your fix holds.

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

I too had problems with a Gigabyte MB (GA-Z87X-UD5 TH) with running a UAD Apollo interface, could never track it down. Mostly seems to stem from the fact that you can never get a good handle on shared interrupts that may be affecting audio performance. Didn't seem to matter whose Firewire card or what slot it was in. Tried randomly turning things off, looking deep in the bios / settings / Win stuff, no joy. Couldn't get Thunderbolt to work either (not directly supported by UAD anyway).
 
Switched to an ASUS (Z87 Deluxe/Dual with the exact same processor / memory / Firewire / etc) and have had ZERO issues. Most reports on the UAD Apollo site follow similar advice. This board had interrupt sharing info in the user manual, turned off anything sharing the interrupt with the slot the Firewire card was in. Eventually switched to Thunderbolt which works like a charm on this box as well.
 
Using the Gigabyte now for an office / gaming machine.

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.

Well, 
Here is a pro-builder and all of them are ASUS:
 
Sorry, can't post a link: google endpcnoise DAW PC
 
I used some of their stuff for my current No Fan / No Rotating Drives - Silent DAW

Silent DAW? How cool is that?

The Gigabyte board I'm using has a nasty reputation for intermittent freezing where the video freezes, sound stops and all input from mouse and keyboard is ignored and only rebooting using the reset switch in the PC gets things working again. Mine doesn't suffer from this, but that seems more to do with luck than anything else, some people seem plagued by 20 or more freezes a day then none for a couple of weeks then it starts again. Bad batch of components? No-one seems to know,

It looks like Gigabyte BIOS updates may have reduced but not solved the problem, and some of their more recent boards have acquired the same kind of reputation.

Don't think my next build will be a Gigabyte to stay on the safe side.

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.

I had a Gigabyte motherboard in my main DAW system.  A GAZ77X UD5H motherboard.  It developed USB 3.0 problems and no DVI video out.  I sent it back to Gigabyte for warranty repair but the returned board looked like a replacement.  It worked OK for about 6 months and a problem arise that caused Windows "Blue Screens" which I thought was the motherboard, but turned out to be the i7 3770 CPU.  I replaced the Gibabyte motherboard during the troubleshooting with an on-hand spare ASRock Z77 motherboard (about a year ago) and the ASRock seems to be faster, for whatever reason. 
 
The Gigabyte motherboard is now being used by a forum member who had the same model motherboard that failed.
 
But, I didn't have any audio dropout problems, either using an MAudio Fastrack Ultra 8R or a Roland Octa-Capture both USB connected interface units.