What drivers to download for my new G74?

[HeadCrash]

Ok guys, new to the board here. I just bought a new G74SX-NH71 off of New Egg along with a stick of memory and a Crucial M4 128GB SSD. Planning on doing a fresh install of Windows on the SSD as soon as I get it, and was just wondering exactly which hardware components will come with my system so I can have the drivers all downloaded and ready when it gets here.

Also, is there anything else you guys would suggest I do in order to get the most out of my system and keep the problems to a minimum? I have never flashed a BIOS before, but have heard it mentioned in other threads so tips for this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the help.

~Crash

[BrodyBoy]

The drivers you'll need are:

Intel chipset
Intel RST
Intel MEI
nVidia Graphics
Realtek audio
Realtek cardreader
Fresco USB 3.0
Touchpad (Sentelic or Synaptics)
Realtek LAN
WLAN (Atheros or Intel)
Bluetooth (Azurewave or Intel, if present and wanted)
Asus ATK Package

Before making any other changes, I'd install that extra memory module and use it for a few days, to make sure it's compatible. If you make all your upgrades and changes at once, it's harder to troubleshoot if there are problems.

Here are instructions for flashing the G74 BIOS. Be sure to check and see what version it's already running.....if it's current (v203), you don't need to change it.

[ColonelS]

as usual brodyboy for the win~

[HeadCrash]

Thanks for the help Brody. Have made all of my updates and this thing is running like a champ. I do have one more question for you. You mentioned the Intel MEI drivers, and I have no clue what those are or where I should download them from as I couldn't find any mention of them in the excellent Driver's and How-To's thread.

[BrodyBoy]

HeadCrash wrote:
Thanks for the help Brody. Have made all of my updates and this thing is running like a champ. I do have one more question for you. You mentioned the Intel MEI drivers, and I have no clue what those are or where I should download them from as I couldn't find any mention of them in the excellent Driver's and How-To's thread.

Go into Device Manager and see if you have a PCI Communications device with an exclamation mark. (That little indicator Windows uses for devices not installed properly....missing drivers, etc.). If you don't see anything like that, the MEI has already been installed, probably when you were doing Windows Updates after your clean install.

If that marked device IS in Device Manager, go into Windows Updates and you should find the Intel MEI listed in the "Optional" updates section. You can install it from there, or you can download it here and install it manually.