After a clean install of Win7, what drivers ill need to install ?

Depends on your hardware.
I do latest versions of...
*Motherboard/Chipset .infs...to build a good foundatoin
*Graphics
*SATA controller/RAID controller
*Sound/NIC, including wireless NIC

If it's a laptop, add some system drivers for those function keys, power management for proper hiber/standby, hard drive shock protection.

Yeah some people will say "But Windows 7 has most of those, just use Microsoft Update"

Well, it's been the same for all prior versions of Windows, yes the latest OS will usually include built in drivers for existing hardware out there. Vista had more drivers for existing hardware than XP when Vista first came out. And XP had more drivers for existing hardware than 2K when it first came out. And 98Se had more drivers for existing hardware than 95 when it first came out...blah blah blah blah blah, same ol same ol if you've been in the game for a few years.

But for optimal performance and stability, the latest drivers from the manufacturer are usually the best option.

Now to toss a monkey wrench in the mix, since Win7 isn't officially released to the pub yet, many manufacturers haven't released their latest drivers for 7 yet. The Vista ones may work fine, the ones Win7 has built in may work fine, or you just may have to wait.
 
Ok thx.
But what exactly are the SATA controller/RAID controller and Sound/NIC driver ? Where do ppl normally get them ?
 
Nicolas554 said:
I'll install Win7 home edition once its out. This guide here is pretty clear on how to do a clean install, but i still have a question. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

What drivers will i need to install after Win7 is installed ???? Obviously my GPU driver, but what other drivers will i need ?

Thx.
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You shouldn't need to do anything unless you notice any functionality missing. All my drivers (including GPU) came down through Windows Update.
 
you install whatever it didn't install. No different than installing any other OS.
 
Everything worked after a clean install, however, it all worked better when i installed updated drivers. Specifically, my vid drivers.
 
You'll need to go to Asus's website and download the newest mainboard drivers which will include your network controller (ethernet port basically), onboard sound (if applicable) and chipset drivers which will give you drivers for your SATA (hard drives and CD ROMs if they are SATA).

Then you'll need to download your video card drivers from Nvidia's website. Afte rthat's all said and done, do your reboot. When you get back to your desktop of your computer, right click on my computer and click on manage. This will launch the management console for your computer. Click on Device Manager and see if there are any yellow exclamation points or question marks. If there are none then you know you have all your drivers.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Ahh it's a homebuilt cloner. Do you game with it? Or just general use?
Click to expand...

Yea, its homebuilt, a cpu tech i know did it for me back in 2007. He did a good job, but now im tired of paying someone to do something i could do by myself. So i started to change some hardware by myself and had no problem : GPU, PSU, CPU cooler. It will be the first time ill install windows though.

Yes, im a hardcore gamer (L4D, COD) and i want the best performence possible.
 
Nicolas554 said:
Ok, but its the very first time ill install windows by myslef... only things ive installed before is some software/games and GPU drivers... So thats why i have no idea what other driver are needed.
Click to expand...

After you install windows look in device manager. It will show you what drivers were not installed.
 
Cmustang87 said:
You'll need to go to Asus's website and download the newest mainboard drivers which will include your network controller (ethernet port basically), onboard sound (if applicable) and chipset drivers which will give you drivers for your SATA (hard drives and CD ROMs if they are SATA).

Then you'll need to download your video card drivers from Nvidia's website. Afte rthat's all said and done, do your reboot. When you get back to your desktop of your computer, right click on my computer and click on manage. This will launch the management console for your computer. Click on Device Manager and see if there are any yellow exclamation points or question marks. If there are none then you know you have all your drivers.
Click to expand...

Ok so i need to burn those on a CD cause i wont be able to access internet if i dont have the Ethernet driver backed up ?
 
Update GPU drivers obviously. Otherwise, I will suggest just checking the Device Manager (type in search). If a piece of hardware is missing a driver, by being marked with a Yellow !, then update the driver. Otherwise, leave everything alone.

I don't like updating drivers unless necessary becuase most drivers come with add-ons/drive managers/services that start up. By the time you completely 'upgrade' your drivers, you've downgraded your system as a whole with all the extra junk. I've done some benchmarkings and, at least with Nvidia, installing all of the motherboard/controlers(sata/ide)/nic/sound drivers, I lost a few FPS. I rolled back everything to the default drivers provided by 7 and the fps went up again.

But in all, the answer is, if it's not broke don't fix it. If you're getting crashes then update drivers, otherwise stick with what Windows gives you, except for GPU.
 
bigdogchris said:
I don't like updating drivers unless necessary becuase most drivers come with add-ons/drive managers/services that start up. By the time you completely 'upgrade' your drivers, you've downgraded your system as a whole with all the extra junk. I've done some benchmarkings and, at least with Nvidia, installing all of the motherboard/controlers(sata/ide)/nic/sound drivers, I lost a few FPS. I rolle.
Click to expand...

Quite the opposite experience over many many many builds. Better stability, better performance, things work better in intensive games, etc.

Makers of hardware know their hardware best.
 
bigdogchris said:
I don't like updating drivers unless necessary becuase most drivers come with add-ons/drive managers/services that start up. By the time you completely 'upgrade' your drivers, you've downgraded your system as a whole with all the extra junk.
Click to expand...

99% of those, you can easily install JUST the driver if you extract the archive, and manually update the driver, instead of running the installer.
 
I checked on ASUS website for downloading the drivers and i found all that is needed. But there's no Win7(64) drivers for the P5K-E/wifi... only Vista64.

So i was wondering if there's someone here who used the vista64 drivers for win7, did it work correctly ?
 
Nicolas554 said:
I checked on ASUS website for downloading the drivers and i found all that is needed. But there's no Win7(64) drivers for the P5K-E/wifi... only Vista64.

So i was wondering if there's someone here who used the vista64 drivers for win7, did it work correctly ?
Click to expand...

I'm willing to bet all the drivers you need are built into 7. The only drivers I have to install are nvidia and soundblaster. That's it.

But in most cases, yes, you can use vista drivers. 7 uses the same driver model as vista.
 
My recommendation would be to make sure you have your NIC drivers available on CD or USB thumbdrive (assuming that you don't need these drivers as well once you load W7...).
I learned the hard way last time I installed Windows XP on a homebuilt. I had forgotten to get my NIC driver and so once Windows was up and running, there were a half dozen miscellaneous drivers missing including the NIC. That meant I could not simply open an internet browser in order to pull them from the manufacturer because I couldn't access the network!
 
If you're not running 3D games with a gaming graphics card and/or high-quality audio on a dedicated audio card then the Windows-derived drivers will do just fine.

So-called 'lessons' learnt from experiences with XP are a complete irrelevence. XP was developed and released in 2001. Most computer hardware in current use was built since then. XP doesn't have the capacity, like Vista and Windows 7 do, of obtaining more up to date drivers over the internet as part of the install process. In reality if you have the PC connectd to an active internet connection during the install you'll have the vast bulk of device drivers installed for you during the install, and Windows Update will provide you with up to date versions afterwards.

Chipset manufacturer graphics and audio driverpackages are good to install separately afterwards, because they contain the full control interface for the hardware, whilst Windows Update derived ones only contain the device driver itself and not the 'control centre' software related to the device.
 
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