Help installing drivers on new PC.

kaddle · March 1, 2018

i finally got my first build finished and I can already tell that it is leagues faster than my old pc, even though all I have done so far is update the OS, and install my antivirus. now I shall install the necessary drivers before I can finally start gaming. I need to know which drivers I need to install and which order to install them in, and how to install them. after watching some guides on youtube I have a good idea of which drivers to install, but I need more assurance. this stuff is still a bit confusing to me.

i'll be honest, even though it took me over 17 hours of constant work, actually building the pc was a lot more fun than trying this driver installation stuff. maybe it's because all of the first boot tension is gone, and I am so close to playing games without the lowest resolution, graphical settings, and less than 20 FPS.

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i watched that video from paul's hardware, but i still have some questions. i notice that the amd chipset driver can be attained from my motherboards website or from the AMD website. i heard that the chipset you get from the AMD website is a little bit better because of the performance plan stuff. should i go ahead and install the chipset drivers from the AMD website? also, are they installed in the same manner?

i checked my bios version and it's quite outdated. i remember when i first launched this pc and entered bios it showed that my memory speed was like 2100 mhz or something like that, but the memory i purchased was 3000 mhz. am i right to assume that this issue is with the outdated bios? also, how necessary is it to update my bios?

i guess i get my gpu drivers from the NVidia website?

are there any other drivers i need to install or update?

Mira Yurizaki · March 1, 2018

My philosophy is to install the bare minimum to get the system up and going. In my case, it's just these things

Chipset
Audio
Video card

The order in which they're installed largely doesn't matter, because the OS detects they're all there. If for instance, the chipset drivers are needed before the audio drivers (because the audio chip is connected to the chipset), then it wouldn't see the audio chip. But most of the time it does. At least from my experience.

Everything else? Unless I need it, I don't install it. On Intel's side there are things like IME, Rapid Storage, etc. Those aren't needed. They're for features I don't use. Wi-Fi drivers? Don't need them either, because I don't use the Wi-Fi adapter. Also all of those motherboard utilities? Don't bother. GeForce Experience? Unless you need something off it (like ShadowPlay), don't install it. The reason I do all of this is to ensure that I have fewer things that could screw something up. They may not actually be harmful, but they're either useless/redundant, or they don't need to be on my system. Now, Windows may try to install drivers for things like the Wi-Fi card I have in the motherboard, but I don't care if it does unless it breaks something, because the other part of why I do this is to just save me time and I don't feel like going to Device Manager to disable it outright.

As far as BIOS goes, don't update BIOS unless you absolutely have to (which is usually if there's a hardware incompatibility that a newer BIOS can fix). The reason why system is reporting the RAM being slower than what it was advertised for is because you need to set it in BIOS. The system doesn't automagically try to configure RAM, it makes you do it. If you want to know how to change that setting, consult your manual, every BIOS menu setup is different.