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Choosing best drivers for Z97-A

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  • Choosing best drivers for Z97-A

    I'm finding it a bit confusing choosing the right drivers.

    For the Ethernet adapter Intel I218-V, the current driver installed by Windows 10 is v12.15.22.6 dated 05/04/2016. On the Asus support page Z97-A Driver & Tools | Motherboards | ASUS United Kingdom it has v20.1.2019.0 dated 06/08/2015, so a higher version but an earlier date. Then the Intel site Downloads for Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I218-V has v23.5.1 dated 12/14/2018.

    So the Intel one would seem the one I should use, being both the most recent and having the highest version number but then I wonder if Microsoft installs such an old driver because there's particular problems with the latest one and why the Asus one has a higher version number than the MS one but an earlier date. I just installed the Intel driver to test it and it now shows as v12.17.8.7 dated 27/09/2017, so considerably more recent than the MS or Asus ones but the version number is not the same as the one stated on the Intel page and is lower than the Asus one.

    Likewise with the Realtek audio driver. The MS one is v6.0.1.7233 dated 24/04/2014. The Asus one is v6.01.7848 dated 04/08/2016 so that's the clear winner of the two but then the Realtek site 500 Internal Server Error has vR2.82 dated 26/07/2017 and whilst the date would seem to make that the obvious choice, the completely different version numbering from the other two makes it hard to know if the archive actually contains a more recent driver.

    The USB driver on the Asus site is Asmedia_USB3_V1.16.35.1 dated 02/08/2016. Device Manager doesn't show any Asmedia USB devices but the installed MS drivers for "Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller -1.0 (Microsoft)" and "USB Root Hub (USB 3.0) are both dated 2018, so if the Asmedia driver relates to either of those devices then it would seem outdated and I should stick with what's already installed.

    I don't know what the Chipset driver relates to in Device Manager so I can't compare dates but the Asus driver is dated 02/08/2016.

    The Asus SATA driver is v14.5.0.1081 dated 07/08/2015 and whilst quite old, it's more recent than the installed MS driver for Standard SATA AHCI Controller v10.0.17134.1 dated 21/06/2006. I don't know who makes the SATA hardware though, so there may be a more recent manufacturer driver.

    So if someone could advise me exactly what I should install that would be great.
    Last edited by doberman90; 01-18-2019, 08:55 AM.
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