Hi!
I have an Asus P5KC motherboard, and I am preparing to upgrade to Vista 64. I don't "think" all of the available BIOS, driver, and utility updates are really required, but I downloaded them all anyhow.
I have been to the Asus support site, and found drivers for the following areas. My notes are next to each item.
BIOS and BIOS Utility - 1001 is now available. Description says "support new CPUs". I use an Intel Q6600 and don't plan to upgrade that at this time.
Assessment: not needed.
Chipset - There are two out there for Vista 64. Both are versioned "V8.3.0.1013", but one has a date 2007/09/20, and the other shows 2007/05/07. I downloaded both, and will review their website to see which one (if any) should be used. If in doubt, I will use the later one.
Assessment: will probably use the newest one.
ATK - I know what the description says, but I have no inkling what this is. It says "ACPI Driver for ATK 0110 Virtual Device for Windows XP (32 and 64)/Vista (32 and 64). There's only one version out there, labeled "1043.4.0.0".
Assessment: not sure if this is needed, or even "when" I would apply it...during Vista 64 install? After first boot?
AUDIO and RAID Drivers:
Assessment: I use an external audio and MIDI processor, so I don't need Audio drivers. I don't use Raid; won't need that, either.
LAN: My board has an Attansic LAN controller, so I downloaded the Vista 64 driver, labeled "2.0.6000.0"
Assessment: I will probably need this. Will install after Windows/Vista 64 is up and running.
UTILITIES: This one is very confusing. There were a number of items here, all with different filenames.
Asus Update v7.13.04 (2007/12/17) Install Program for Windows XP(32 and 64) ---> yes, it says "for XP", but is in the "Vista 64 bit" section. A typo, perhaps?
Assessment: Not sure the status of this; don't know if I should install it after Vista is up and running?
Asus PC ProbeII V1.04.19 Install Program for Windows XP/Vista & Windows 64 bit XP/Vista.
Assessment: I think this is the CPU overclocking utility and/or temperature monitor. I don't think I need to install this.
Asus AI Suite V1.03.19 for Windows XP & 64 bit XP and 32/64 bit Vista.
Assessment: I don't know what this is, and I don't know whether I will really need it under Vista 64.
Does anybody have any ideas on any of the above?
How about general philosophy regarding motherboard BIOS, chipset driver, or monitor updates? I generally don't apply them unless I'm installing a new OS such as this migration from XP 32 to Vista 64...but I would be interested in what other people think about this.