Solved New build drivers

I am planning to build a new PC over the holidays and am now gathering all the parts and corresponding drivers and software. I should mention that I am building my PCs offline - meaning I first put together the hardware, then install Windows from a USB drive, then drivers from a second USB drive, then all essential software, again from the USB drive. Finally I tweak the install the way I want it, then install my firewall/antivirus, then connect to the internet for the first time.

Now, looking at the ASUS support website, I see a ton of drivers that I did not see on my previous build and I am not sure which ones are needed. Here are the ones that I am not sure what they do: Intel(R) HID Event Filter Driver V2.2.2.10 for Windows 11 64-bit; Intel(R) Platform Monitoring Technology Driver V3.1.2.6 for Windows 11 64-bit; Intel(R) GNA Scoring Accelerator module V3.5.0.1578 for Windows 11 64-bit; Intel(R) Serial IO V30.100.2419.23 for Windows 11 64-bit; Intel(R) NPU Driver V32.0.100.2540 for Windows 11 64-bit; Intel(R) Dynamic Tuning Technology Driver V9.0.11703.48565 for Windows 11 64-bit; Intel Dynamic Tuning Driver v2.2.10202.6 for Windows10, Windows11 64-bit.

Also, is it actually better to use the drivers from the vendor site (ASUS) as opposed to the Intel site? Are ASUS prodided drivers actually modified for the specific board (I got the Z890 Hero board)?

Hi @unifex

If you haven't already done so, look at the thread here at Elevenforum linked below run by @MoKiChU who has the very latest drivers and firmware for Asus motherboards that run on Intel platforms. I principally use Mokichu's drivers/firmware for my Asus z790 board as they're the latest. I use The Intel Driver and Support Assistant as well especially for the latest Bluetooth and networking (LAN and Wifi) driver updates.



And yes it can take a bit of figuring out which Intel drivers are which. That is Intel's own fault for not clearly explaining their driver/firmware infrastructure.

- First thing Check if the BIOS is up-to-date, if not, update it first.
- the Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Hero motherboard comes with a dedicated USB drive that contains essential drivers, utilities, and the user manual
so no need to hunt for drivers.
- $WinPeDriver$, a special folder Windows Setup looks for on installation media (like a USB) to automatically find and load essential drivers during installation. Create the folder then copy all drivers under this folder.
- Windows Installation offline will not work unless using Rufus or unattend.xml file to bypass the restriction.

Topgundcp said:

- First thing Check if the BIOS is up-to-date, if not, update it first.
- the Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Hero motherboard comes with a dedicated USB drive that contains essential drivers, utilities, and the user manual
so no need to hunt for drivers.
- $WinPeDriver$, a special folder Windows Setup looks for on installation media (like a USB) to automatically find and load essential drivers during installation. Create the folder then copy all drivers under this folder.
- Windows Installation offline will not work unless using Rufus or unattend.xml file to bypass the restriction.

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks, I totally missed that USB drive, they put it in a small cardboard box that I would've never opened .

Now that I looked into it, there are lots of drivers there, some of them older than on the website though, so perhaps it makes sense to install newer ones. The list itself is very useful though.

The question that I have now, why do they include three different LAN drivers - Intel, Marvel, and Realtek? Do I really need all three?

unifex said:

Wow, thanks, I totally missed that USB drive, they put it in a small cardboard box that I would've never opened .

Now that I looked into it, there are lots of drivers there, some of them older than on the website though, so perhaps it makes sense to install newer ones. The list itself is very useful though.

The question that I have now, why do they include three different LAN drivers - Intel, Marvel, and Realtek? Do I really need all three?

Click to expand...

You only need one for LAN. and one for Wireless. The USB probably includes a lot of drivers not apply to yours but for other ASUS MB model.
During installation, The setup will search for the appropriate drivers for your MB only.

For Drivers say for the LAN your motherboard appears to have 2 LAN adapters. One Realtek(5Gb) and one Intel(2.5Gb). Unsure what the Marvel driver might be for however.

I'm not sure what's the point of having two on the same board. And although the difference between 5 and 2.5 Gbps sounds huge, in practice both are way faster than the fastest internet connection available where I live.

What is lacking though is a decent manual. In fact, this is my third Asus board and every time I get one, the manual is getting thinner and thinner. And while there is an online help/manual available, it still contains way less information than a thick manual from a few generations ago. So for example, it's not easy to understand why are there two LAN ports on the board. Similarly with USB ports. There are lots of them, but some are 5 Gbps and some 10 Gbps. Not clear to me why. Some of my peripherals (e.g., the keyboard, mouse, and printer) work perfectly fine with USB 2.0, so additional bandwidth doesn't give me anything here. What would be important for me is front USB ports, not rear, since I am not going to get behind my case to reach the USB port unless it's something permanent like a printer. But front ports are mostly case-dependent.

In any case, very often these things are not designed for me, the engineers have some sort of a model customer in mind and make the board accordingly. Maybe that's why there are so many of them available. On the other hand, as a consumer, I just get what's on sale, so I am also not really try to match the specific details to my intended use.

@unifex
Which manual are you referring to the, 83 page user manual or the 100 page bios manual?

I'm talking about the 12-page booklet included with the board. My previous booklet (for a Z490 board) was about 40 pages and the one before that was an encyclopedia. That was actually useful.

What you're talking about, the 83-page pdf file called User Manual and another pdf file called BIOS manual, they are first of all files and as such basically not accessible if I am building a PC (unless you assume that I have another one nearby), and most importantly, they are very light on content. There is almost nothing there that is not completely obvious. That "almost" includes important bits about which ports are sharing bandwidth, how the audio jacks are mapped, and how you do BIOS flashback with USB. Maybe the Q-code table is useful. Everything else is either completely obvious, or not explained at all, for example, why are there 2 LAN ports.

I'd hardly characterize the Asus bios manuals as 'very light on content'. The 83 page user manual should be included with the motherboard in the box. Sounds like you've never seen the two manuals I'm referring too.

unifex said:

In any case, very often these things are not designed for me, the engineers have some sort of a model customer in mind and make the board accordingly. Maybe that's why there are so many of them available. On the other hand, as a consumer, I just get what's on sale, so I am also not really try to match the specific details to my intended use.

Click to expand...

ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI all try to cover the "universe" of DIY builders and their specific needs. As to why there are so damn many different boards, I have to rely on a website "comparison" function. However, I have foumnd that in many cases the feature set list is inconsistent from model to model.

In my last build, I ended up getting an ASUS ROG Strix-E-A when I should have gotten a Strix-E-E. My bad for not checking more thoroughly but who would have imagined 2 different ROG Strix E models?

Marcus Vinicus said:

I'd hardly characterize the Asus bios manuals as 'very light on content'. The 83 page user manual should be included with the motherboard in the box. Sounds like you've never seen the two manuals I'm referring too.

Click to expand...

Like I said, the only manual physically included with the board (as in, a printed booklet) has 12 pages plus some compliance information printed in a text that's too small for me to read (not that I would be interested in reading it anyway). The 83-page user manual you are referring to I had to download from the Asus website, but unless I print it myself, I won't be able to use it while building my PC: I am reusing many old parts (like the case and fans) and so my old PC will be decommissioned before I even start building the new one.

Now, what I call "light on content" is this: the manual goes page after page identifying different parts of the board, like this is a USB port and this is a LAN port and this is a USB-C port, and frankly, I can do that just by looking at the board, I don't need a manual to distinguish LAN from USB. What I need to know is, for example, why are there two LAN ports, what can I do with them - there is nothing about that in the manual. Another example - there is a diagram showing how to insert the DIMM. I would say that's self-evident. Sure, it must be there in case someone who never built a PC before buys the board. But that's it, there is no further information on which DIMMs are compatible, what are the voltages, what to do if you want to overclock it, etc. Such information was included in ASUS manuals before, and it's gone now. That's light on content to me.

Just to complete the thread, I did build that machine and I did install drivers from the Asus website. There are more drivers than one would think necessary, but Windows recognizes the devices present on the board and unless I install drivers, the device manager would show unknown or other devices, so to keep things neat, I installed them all. Some of them - such as the second LAN, WiFi, Bluetooth - I will never use on this machine (still not sure what's the point of the second LAN port, at least for me having a single router with the single line; why would I need WiFi if LAN is there, and why would I need Bluetooth on the desktop), but still installed. These drivers are not very clearly identified on the Asus site, so I just installed all of them.

The manuals are as useless as I mentioned before. Here's the main issue - the manuals do not explain anything, they just enumerate settings and give possible values. Since Asus has its own names for things, it's not always clear what the settings are for and what is the consequence of choosing one value against another. Good thing one can use AI to sort things out.

Wifi and Bluetooth are two different hardware and software apps. That's why, and yes they are both very good things to have at the same time.