Thanks for your quick reply @build4fun, are you positive however that the Spectre patch in this case was being implemented on the BIOS level as opposed on the software level? By extension, is it possible to patch Spectre on the software level (specifically the early iterations)?

Additionally, I'm looking to replace the thermal pads on this motherboard as accurately as possible. I've read here of someone replacing them with 3mm pads, which seems to be overkill to me. I've emailed Gigabyte technical support asking for official recommendation (not that I expect a knowledgeable reply from them, but it's worth a shot) but the question still remains: what mm thickness of thermal pads is ideal for this motherboard? Failing everything, I've ordered an engineers ruler and will measure them myself and report back my findings.

Yes, it's at BIOS level, if it was OS level you'd see a different patch ID than what is in BIOS (ie a newer microcode, otherwise OS level would not be utilized)
1.5-2mm might be possible to squeeze in there at Mosfets and the tiny heatsink square, probably same for SB would be OK too, but 3mm thick would be pushing it, especially at the SB.
Stock is probably 1mm or less on Mosfets, maybe 1-1.25 on SB.

Use best thermal paste you have on the NB, your board will thank you

Three quick questions for you guys:

1: If I have no drives bigger than 2.3Gb, should I stay on IRST v10.1.0.1008 rather than IRST v11.2.0.1527? Is the only issue here a potential incompatibility with Jmicron SATA chip? If so, I'll stay on v11, as I never intend on using the Jmicron chip.

2: I appear to be having some issues as-is on IRST v11.2.0.1527, though I am not sure if this is on the BIOS or OS level. These two issues are the following: all my drives are ''safely removable'' and no driver appears under Storage controllers in Device Manager for the IRST drivers, is this normal? EDIT: installing the ''latest'' IRST drivers here fixes this issue (I guess I grew lazy and expected Windows 10 to grab these drivers for me.

3: What advantages are there to upgrading the Realtek network ROM using the one in @build4fun's post?

@Zetren - #1 - If you never need to use the J.Micron ports then it doesn't matter, you can update RST to whatever (within reason/whatever the known limitations are, I think 11.5 or 11.6). What you should use, drive side aside, only you can choose going by performance reports and what you think it's best for you
#2 - if you have not flashed a modified BIOS with RST orom 11, and you are using RST 11 drivers, then this may be source of some of the issues, you should only use drivers that are same major version as what orom is in your BIOS.
#3 - Realtek orom is only used if you use Wake on Lan or PXE Boot to Lan

@Zetren - Agree with @Lost_N_BIOS points
#1,2 - Immediately after upgrading to EX58N112.f13 (in June) which has the IRST BIOS module v11.2.0.1527 in it, I too did get issues (described them above post) because my system was on an older IRST driver set and now I got the drivers miss-matched with the BIOS. This is quite normal so no need to panic. The way I solved it was to boot in to safe mode and upgrade IRST drivers to Intel RSTe Drivers & Software Set v11.7.4.1001 WHQL since it seems to be the recommended one to combine with RST BIOS module v11.2.0.1527 on X58 boards (Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers?). Then I rebooted again and everything has worked fine ever since.

Besides the initial IRST driver/BIOS miss-match (which is I think is unavoidable when you upgrade - after all this is exactly what you are trying to do!) moving to EX58N112.f13 has caused me absolutely ZERO issues and only upsides. There is no downside that I can see.

If you choose to move to EX58N112.f13 you get a newer Network module that you may not need but there is ZERO downslide with it as far as I know, and in case you do want to enable Wake on Lan or PXE Boot to Lan in the future you do not need to upgrade the BIOS again.

If you at some point in the future want to buy a >2.3GB SSD (I do :) ) you just plug it in and all works (no need to upgrade BIOS or drivers).

Based on running my system stable 24/7 since June 2019 (assuming you are not planning on using the Jmicron SATA controller), I can recommend this BIOS with the right drivers of course (Intel RSTe Drivers & Software Set v11.7.4.1001 WHQL).

@build4fun

v11.2.0.1006 is in fact the recommended OS-level IRST driver for BIOS-level v11.2.0.1527, not v11.7.4.1001. Benchmarks on my end show a relevant increase in performance for v11.2.0.1006 over v11.7.4.1001:

v11.2.0.1006:https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/20119803#DRIVE
v11.7.4.1001:https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/20118813#DRIVE

I hope you find this information useful.

Yep you are right. I have no idea where I got driver v11.7.4.1001 from - must have mixed it up with something else. I do not even know where that driver is on this site... And it is clearly stated here: Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers? that driver v11.2.0.1006 goes best with v11.2.0.1527. To make things even more embarrassing, looking at my system, I do indeed have v11.2.0.1006 installed in my GA-EX58-UD5.

In my defense I have a few Asus Rampage III extreme and Asus Rampage II in the house hold and I might have mixed things up with them - I have modded the BIOS for them too. might have v11.7.4.1001 there in combination with another BIOS module - need to investigate that...

Thank you for your feed back

Now I'm curious if IRST ROM v11.6.0.1702 would offer any benchmark improvements over v11.2.0.1006. I have no experience modding BIOSs however. @build4fun, seeing as we both do not use J.Micron, would it be worth your time dipping your toes again into modding this BIOS to update the IRST?

Hello Everybody!

I'm new on this forum. So I decided to renew my old (GA-EX58-UD5 with i7-920) system to W3690 and two SSDin RAID0. Succesfully flashed EX58N112.f13 BIOS from post #9, many thanks to @build4fun , but on Windows 10 x64 installation I've got problem. Tried different drivers (11.2.0.1006, 10.1.0.1008, 11.7.4.1001) but anyway error on load driver. System for some reason does not like iaStor.inf from all drivers version I've listed above.
“No new devices drivers were found. Make sure the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK”.

Option ROM - 11.2.0.1527

Can someone help?

@Zetren - You'll have to test 11.2 vs 11.6, if 11.6 is usable on your system

@Andrew200010 - You may not need to use pre-install driver on Win10, usually you do not, but I am not 100% sure with old X58 system (@Fernando ?)

@Fernando - Thanks

@Andrew200010 - See link above

Thank You!!!