Driver confusion. Which is bloat?

[Guest]

Hi, I have an AsRock Extreme4 Z77 motherboard & 2600k on its way. Looking at the drivers to install, a lot of them seem like bloat. Is it necessary/useful to install all of these? The INF, LAN, SATA3, and USB drivers are the only ones that look like I'll actually need to install, but I wanted to check to be sure. To add to that, which USB driver should I be installing? Also, where are the chipset drivers? All of the intel "features" (junk), seem to be pointless for a desktop. The CIR driver is for things such as wireless presentation tools and the like, correct? The rest of my build in my sig will be incorporated into the new system to give point of reference.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&o=Win7

 

[Pinhedd]

Drivers aren't bloat, ever. Some of them may come with control panels which may be less than optimal but manufacturer drivers are almost always better than Window's native drivers.

You will want to install the Intel chipset drivers, RST AHCI drivers, third party AHCI drivers (for the add-on SATA 3 ports / eSATA ports), management engine drivers (if applicable), LAN, USB, VGA, Bluetooth (if applicable).

 

[Guest]

I forgot to link the site. Added now, and yes some of these are considered bloat for what I'll be using, no?

 

[clutchc]

Bloat? No. Possibly not needed for your situation? Maybe. Follow Pinhedd's advice.

 

[Guest]

Alright. Btw the download page:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&o=Win764
I just feel like a lot of this is app junk to me. I suppose I can always just uninstall them if that's what they are for me.

2 questions:
Can I put a USB 2.0 front panel cable set into a USB 3.0 header?
And should I be installing both of these USB drivers?

 

[wavetrex]

You most likely need all in the category "Drivers", and they are definitely not bloat (except the floppy driver, which is only needed for WinXP)

However, you can skip the "Utilities" completely, nothing interesting there...

...nah, I'm lieing, "XFast USB" and "XFast LAN" are amazing products (one is the Turbo mode for USB3, the other is a prioritizing software done by CFos, which is amazing of any DSL/Cable connection - not useful for fiber however)... also the "ASRock Extreme Tuning" is for overclocking, and "Instant Boot" is nice if you use an UPS and never run out of power ( it does what it sais, you can "boot" your system in seconds - actually it resumes from RAM ).

 

[clutchc]

Alright. Btw the download page:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&o=Win764
I just feel like a lot of this is app junk to me. I suppose I can always just uninstall them if that's what they are for me.

2 questions:
Can I put a USB 2.0 front panel cable set into a USB 3.0 header?
And should I be installing both of these USB drivers?

If your case has just USB2.0 ports, plug them into the USB2.0 headers. There's no benefit to using the USB3.0 header even if you could.

You should install the Realtek high definition audio driver if you are using on-board sound, the INF driver, the Intel Management Engine driver, the Broadcom Lan driver, ASMedia SATA3 Driver (for the 3rd party headers), the ASMedia USB 3.0 driver (for the 3rd party ports), the Intel USB 3.0 driver (fore the native ports), and the graphics driver for whichever card you are using.

 

[jaquith]

Bloat from the link:

Drivers:
1. Realtek high definition audio driver ; if all you doing is using is stereo 2/2.1 channel, the default Microsoft drivers are fine <or> you're using HDMI.
2. AppCharger ; only needed for rapid charging of a USB connected device e.g. Phone

Utilities:
3. ASRock 3TB+ Unlocker Utility ; only if you have a 3TB or larger HDD
4. ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility ; I never recommend an OC utility
5. Instant Boot ; can cause unneeded problems and isn't needed for an SSD and I prefer Widows Hybrid Sleep
6. THX TruStudio ; unneeded if all you doing is using are stereo 2/2.1 channel
7. ASRock XFast LAN Utility ; can cause problems
8. ASRock XFast USB Utility ; unneeded for most situations, fine if you have a USB external HDD

Edit/
Drivers:
9. Intel Smart Connect driver ; this seems pretty useless on a PC, more info - http://www.intel.com/support/services/smartconnect/sb/CS-033108.htm
10. Intel Rapid Start driver ; similar to 'Instant Boot' so I'd pass especially if you have an SSD, more info - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC6079pWZ4c

 

[clutchc]

1. Realtek high definition audio driver ; if all you doing is using is stereo 2/2.1 channel, the default Microsoft drivers are fine <or> you're using HDMI.

The only reason I kept the Realtek pkg in my suggestion, is that the driver installation will also install the audio control panel which he may find useful. I don't know if they still do this, but it used to be you could not turn on 3D 'surround' sound effect unless you had the control panel.

 

[jaquith]

Any of those added drivers under a variety of 'What If' scenarios can have their use. I am simply posting my opinions what's 'bloat.'

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by c1o5ry1991.

 

[Guest]

Nope, got a Xonar for that, and thank you for the replies. Got everything up and running. Time to make this 2600k scream.