How necessary are the SouthBridge-related Via 4-in-1's? (IRQ steering, IDE, USB filter)

[Odeen]

Well, I formatted my machine. For the second time. I'm _almost_ regretting selling my RDRAM, I could be cruising along on a sweet P4/1.7 rig right now for $350 over what I spent.

But, the damage is done, and I'm going to be an AMD/DDR guy for the next year at least. At least running Win2K full time will help my stability (of course, Win2K during it's one-day stint never shut down properly, whereas WinME did)

My Sidewinder Precision Pro USB joystick works fine in Win2K.
My IDE CD-ROM works fine too. (Only IDE device in my rig)
And IRQ's are handled by careful positioning of PCI cards (6 PCI slots is a joke if a chipset can't allocate 6 IRQ's to them!)


So, do I even need to bother installing the Via drivers, or is my system best left alone? Looking for any AMD guru here, I am but an AMD apprentice...


-Alex

 

[Mem]

USB filter you don`t need to install if your USB is working fine,has for the other drivers well I normally install the Via 4 in 1 drivers & so do most members here even with Win2000,but it`s up to you.

 

[rommel]

lol...you should install em....and give the AMD a chance....via reeeeeks no question....but install the 4in1's....it will improve the performance over the win default drivers.
and why you spend so much...i think i would have spent less on this system then a p4...and mine according to sandra and 3Dmark is beating or equalling the pentium....not knockin intel mind you...i want a p4 system too...just waiting for the revision and paltform change before i assemble it.
cool thing is that i think AMD will use the socket A for maybe two more cpu revisions....and ddr although not the big seller they wanted is working fine to me
anyway...be patient install the drivers ....get the miniport for the northbridge from AMD's site and install the latest via for the southbridge from via's site.

 

[Green Man]

I had to remove Via's ide driver and use windows standard ide driver because windows wouldn't recognize my plextor burner with the via driver installed.