Do I HAVE to install the drivers for my motherboard, or can I let Windows choose the drivers?

[soarwitheagles]

Hi again!

Well, I have the following brand new rig I just built:

Intel i5-2500k
EVGA Z68 FTW 160-SB-E689-KR
Corsair Vengeance 16 GB RAM
SeaSonic X Series X-850
XFX 6870 Double D
ZALMAN LQ-315 Water Cooler

Installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I allowed Windows to do all the critical updates. Everything appears to work perfect.

Now I am faced with the decision on whether or not to install all the EVGA recommended drivers from the EVGA website for this specific motherboard.

My million dollar question: Do I HAVE to install the drivers for my motherboard, or can I let Windows choose the drivers?

Second question: How do I know if my present drivers are good enough to get the job done?

Please help me if you can.

Thanks,

Soar

PS No RAID or fancy stuff that needs the drivers except for maybe the LAN [which works perfect now], USB 3.0 [which I will try tonight], and audio [which I will try tonight].

Does anyone else NOT install the motherboard drivers or am I the only one considering this route?

Thanks,

Soar

 

[KSoD]

Windows does NOT detect every piece of hardware and check the manufacturer's websites to see if you have the proper/most up to date drivers. It will only install generic drivers which will allow the hardware to function but it cant remove some abilities of the hardware.

So really do you want to rely on something that just installs a driver to get it to work but may limit what it can do or do you trust the people who make the product to give you the right tools for the right job?

If you think the former, then let Windows decide. If you choose the later, get the drivers yourself from the manufacturer.

Microsoft is in no way, shapr or form responsible for drivers. They install generic drivers to get things operational but operational does not mean optimized for anything more than functional. You can easily get much better performance from drivers from the manufacturer than you would from Microsoft.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Windows does NOT detect every piece of hardware and check the manufacturer's websites to see if you have the proper/most up to date drivers. It will only install generic drivers which will allow the hardware to function but it cant remove some abilities of the hardware.

So really do you want to rely on something that just installs a driver to get it to work but may limit what it can do or do you trust the people who make the product to give you the right tools for the right job?

If you think the former, then let Windows decide. If you choose the later, get the drivers yourself from the manufacturer.

Microsoft is in no way, shapr or form responsible for drivers. They install generic drivers to get things operational but operational does not mean optimized for anything more than functional. You can easily get much better performance from drivers from the manufacturer than you would from Microsoft.

Mac,

Wow! I never realized this! Ok, thank you very much. My major concern was that this motherboard has had several different issues [most related to BIOS I think], and I noticed no issues at all after building the rig and allowing Windows to download and install all updates.

I will definitely leave the BIOS as is simply because everything is working fine.

I suppose I will give EVGA's drivers a shot.

I appreciate you and the help you have given!

Thanks again!

Soar

 

[iFargle]

Yeah.. Probably the biggest thing is motherboard specific features (ie, Gigabyte Energy Saver) more than likely won't be installed with Windows update.


Also, ethernet drivers. Windows doesn't detect my ethernet port until I install the drivers from a disc.

 

[PP Mguire]

9 times out of 10 everything works fine. Most all you really have to worry about are things that aren't supported and the INF. Windows supplies the drivers for Ethernet and Audio for practically all the boards I own so I just use that and install the latest INF update. It is currently what I'm doing with my X79 board besides the installation of USB3. Gotta have that USB3.

What I've noticed with drivers from the manufacturer is that they typically add some sort of bloatware. Like onboard audio installs the Realtek panel which is another boot up program and does the exact same functions that can be accomplished in Windows.

 

[Yevrag35]

What I've noticed with drivers from the manufacturer is that they typically add some sort of bloatware. Like onboard audio installs the Realtek panel which is another boot up program and does the exact same functions that can be accomplished in Windows.

That is precisely why I try hard not to run the setup files that come in the download (i'm looking at you - AMD catalyst software).
I either run the msi's directly or add the inf file directly through device manager. That way, I know what i'm installing

 

[PP Mguire]

You can always just point the device manager to update from that folder.