Memory performance
With the Core i7's memory controller integrated right into the processor, one might not expect much difference in memory subsystem performance between motherboards. However, as we've seen with Athlon 64, X2, and Phenom platforms, motherboard makers do have some freedom to tune on-die memory controllers, and that can have an impact on memory performance.

Gigabyte apparently has some secret sauce working in the EX58-UD5, which manages to score nearly 2GB/s higher than the rest of the field in Sandra's memory bandwidth tests despite running its memory at the exact same clock speed and timings as the other boards. The UD5's advantage is short-lived, however. In our memory access latency tests, all the boards are clumped within less than a nanosecond of each other.

STARS Euler3d computational fluid dynamics
Few folks run fluid dynamics simulations on their desktops, but we've found this multi-threaded test to be particularly demanding of memory subsystems, making it a good link between our memory and application performance tests.

Our Euler3d fluid dynamics benchmark is largely bound by memory performance, so it's no surprise to see the Gigabyte board leading the field. However, it's only a hair quicker than Asus' P6T Deluxe. MSI's X58 Eclipse has to settle for third place, just ahead of the DX58SO.