Drivers & Software

[Innovated]

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this whole pc building thing and I had a question. Do I need to download and install both the chipset and AMD processor drivers?

Thanks in advance! 

[BigBeard]

Which motherboard, cpu and gpu do you have?

In general, though, I do it like this:

1. On first startup of Windows, I install all the motherboard drivers from the manufacturer's webpage, including chipset, IO, networking etc. Then I reboot.
2. On second startup, I install the driver of the screen only, e.g. Acer Nitro. Then I reboot.
3. On the third startup, I install the graphics driver, e.g. Adrenalin.

It helps to disable internet during this to prevent Windows Update from interfering.

[BigBeard]

I should add that I download the drivers onto a USB stick in advance so I don't have to use the internet to get them when I'm installing them.

[MrMafoo]

I do it a little differently:

1. On the first startup, do a Windows update, and keep doing it until there are no more to do

2. Install video drivers directly from AMD or Nvidia. If you have an AMD video card, all the chipset drivers are part of the installation.

3. If everything works, you're done (and if you're on new hardware, 99% of the time it all just works). If you want features you might not have from the Microsoft drivers, like some sound chips and network chips gain more features from Motherboard drivers, then do what BigBeard said, and go get the drivers from the website for that 1 thing. 

A side note, half of what you have as options from your main board manufacturer, will be bloatware. For example, Asus will give you the option to download a bunch of software to keep your system up to date. I strongly recommend not installing any of that stuff. Also, read all the prompts when installing stuff, as a lot of time they try to sneak in browsers, or anti-virus software you don't need or want.

[BigBeard]

The purpose of the process I described is to prevent Windows Update from interfering with the drivers installation. If you rely on WU it will find its own versions of the drivers that will compete with the ones you are trying to install. If you have a AMD GPU it can lead to conflicts that are difficult to resolve. Ideally, you want to disable driver updates altogether if you are relying on a AMD GPU.

[MrMafoo]

Just to reiterate. Nothing wrong with BigBeards recommendation, and if part of being new to this, is learning, then I would follow his advice. However, I suspect he has been doing it for a while, and knows what to grab, and what not to grab. If you are new, you are better off just using what works.

I built my first PC in 1981, and have built hundreds since. I just reinstalled Windows on my PC a few days ago, with an ASUS ROG AMD motherboard, and AMD GPU. I did not install anything from ASUS, and everything works great.

Now, my network card has the ability to throttle usage based on application, if I install the drivers from Asus. However, I don't care about that, so I have not. If I ever wish to do that, I will go get the driver+software from the website. Oftentimes, less is better