GA-X58A-UD3R Currency of Drivers

[jockc]

After one replacement board and many issues (12GB, 10GB usable etc), I've now got my MOBO working reasonably well apart from an unexplained and very infrequent (fortunately) corruption of data on OCZ RAID0 disks. One generic problem that I have with the GA-X58A-UD3R is what appears to be a very long lag in posting of updated drivers etc for the chipsets and controllers.
eg. it was  6 months after Intel released its Intel SATA RAID driver 9.​6.​0.​1014 before it was posted on the GB site. The same applies to the Marvell SATA3 controller which I had to download from the Asus web site in order to get anything that even appeared to be recent.

 I understand that GB has to test new drivers as they become available but other MOBO manufacturers appear to be much more responsive in posting new drivers.
The GA-X58A-UD3R (Rev2) is still a recent MOBO so I would have expected more current downloads.

Through these forums (thank you all) I have identified third party sites which have more up to date drivers (and even BIOS) available. Are these sites generally reputable and at least semi-official or are they to be treated suspiciously? As an enthusiast, I like to take advantage of performance benefits etc from new releases so the current GB lag in posting new drivers etc  is very frustrating. Do other GB users regularly use the downloads from 3P sites?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

I take it when you talk about third party sites one of them is TweakTown in the USA. TweakTown is a reputable site and is used by Gigabyte for their US releases. They are usually one of the first to obtain new drivers/BIOS versions and can be trusted(obviously beta versions can be buggy).

If you have two SSDs in RAID0 configuration especially on the SATA3 Marvell controller then they will fall over and you wil get problems as the Marvell chip just isn't up to it.You would be bettter off having them on the Intel ICH10R Southbridge controlled ports.

[Gary123]

Through these forums (thank you all) I have identified third party sites which have more up to date drivers (and even BIOS) available. Are these sites generally reputable and at least semi-official or are they to be treated suspiciously?

Windows drivers are digitally signed, so you can verify that those are legitimate (and WHQL, if applicable). For the BIOS, you're trusting the site's reputation (and the non-https download, but that's true of the Gigabyte site too).

[jockc]

If you have two SSDs in RAID0 configuration especially on the SATA3 Marvell controller then they will fall over and you wil get problems as the Marvell chip just isn't up to it.You would be bettter off having them on the Intel ICH10R Southbridge controlled ports.

Thanks. I was aware of the generic Marvel 9128 issues so my SSD's are already on the ICH10R.
It's been a long haul to bring this MOBO to a position where it is reasonably reliable (too long) but it's now, generally, OK. My one real issue is as per the subject title which is that Gigabyte appears to be very slow at releasing drivers for this board.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes I don't understand that as they are usually known for being one of the best companies for keeping their drivers up to to date.