Via 4-in-1 drivers Necessary?

[DaveSmith]

I am planning to purchase a KT266 motherboard. I would like to know if......

1) it is totally necessary to install the 4-in-1 drivers or just parts of it?
2) how much peformance will be affected if they are not installed?
3) the plextor site recommend activating DMA through the system panel, they also recommend the VIA 4-in-1 bus master drivers be uninstalled. Anyone with a Plextor have a problem with the drivers?

I am running Win98SE, SBLive Plat, GeForce2, Plextor 8432,Acer NIC.

TIA

 

[Boonesmi]

i just set up an epox 8kha (kt266) board,

1. installing 4in1 may not be "totally" necessary, but it is very advisable. without the drivers can have all kinds of problems
2. a big performance hit without the drivers (thats assuming that without them your system will even be stable)
3. i use a plextor on my system without any problems with 4in1 installed

 

[heffe734]

i would do it anyways...the thing installs rather quickly.

 

[bot2600]

computer would not be stable without it.

bot

 

[DCFife]

When I put my system together (Iwill KK266+R, 1.4Ghz, Geforce2 GTS Pro/450, 512MB Crucial CAS2) I ran 3dMark2001 with and without the 4.32 4-in-1's. My score went from 2400 w/o the 4-in-1's to 3600 with the 4-in-1's...in other words, a 50% increase in AGP performance. I haven't found a reason yet NOT to install them.

- Dave

 

[DaveSmith]

Thanks alot folks...

is there any problems with inabling DMA in Win98? Is the details at the plextor site outdated? the said there might be bootup problems with DMA enabled in using the system menus.

DaveSmith