EVGA Forgoes Driver DVDs: It’s All About The USB Flash Drive
by Joe Shields on May 18, 2018 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- EVGA
- Drivers
- USB
Driver disks of some sort have been part of a PC enthusiast's life as far back as I can remember. Before Windows included drivers, they all came from media included with the motherboard. I first recall them on floppies then once optical media took hold, moved to CDs. As the number of drivers and included software increased in both quantity and size, it outgrew the capacity of CDs and board partners moved to DVDs offering more capacity and faster read speeds. For example, a board partner's driver disk from a Z370 based board weighs in at 6.57GB on the disk, far eclipsing the capacity of a CD (~700MB) and that of a single-sided DVD (4.7 GB).
To that end, yesterday on Twitter, EVGA’s Global Product Management Director Jacob Freeman announced that in the future, EVGA motherboards will not come with driver disks, but USB Flash which contains all the needed drivers and software. This includes H370 based boards now and others moving forward. Instead of a DVD we are used to seeing, EVGA will include a small 8GB USB flash drive with the EVGA logo printed on it instead. While this isn’t a first (a high-end Asus board in the past included one), it certainly is welcome, if only for the quick installation from USB versus CD/DVD installs. The drive is also re-writeable so it can be used for other purposes as well.
Overall, it is good to see EVGA embrace what we feel is the modern, and faster, medium for base driver and software installations, and hope other board partners follow suit. I do wonder a bit about the cost, but even if it adds $1 more, it is worth it (to me). No more whirring from the optical drive to install drivers with H370 and future EVGA motherboards. It’s about time!
Editor's Note: EVGA has confirmed the drive is USB 2.0 based and costs about twenty times more than an optical disk would. Thankfully, EVGA says that significant cost increase will not trickle down to the consumer, which we all appreciate.
I highly doubt that other manufactures will switch to USB drives anytime soon considering the cost is about 20x that of a DVD. Even for a small 8GB USB 2.0 one, but it’s about time someone sets the standard for 2018 🙂 https://t.co/5L1N4trO8q
— Jacob Freeman (@EVGA_JacobF) May 18, 2018
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Mitch89 - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
Omega drivers! Gosh that’s brings me back, I remember using those on my Dell Inspiron 8600 with the Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo.IBM760XL - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
I remember the Dox drivers for nVIDIA back in the day! Those things were the best! Of course eventually the official ones would catch up, but it'd give you a boost for a long time, back in the day when that could mean a few FPS when trying to play Crysis.Ian Cutress - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
Most if the time, network drivers are needed. However Win10 1803 does have most of the Intel gigabit controller network driversMitch89 - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
Yeah it’s been a while since I’ve needed drivers to get network connectivity.Heck, these days a cheap Realtek based USB WiFi adaptor is a few dollars on eBay, and installs automatically on Windows 10.
Zinabas - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
Is noone else worried about a rewritable medium being included with all this now? Disks are write once, no tampering at the factory where its assembled, literally any employee at the packaging area can start rewriting these with any number of harmful software packages and you'd be none the wiser. Since its a motherboard its very unlikely you'll have AV installed before the drivers as well.cosmotic - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
They are write protected. Some emulate a cdrom drive.PeachNCream - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
Not write protected. From the article above:"The drive is also re-writeable so it can be used for other purposes as well."
mapesdhs - Sunday, May 20, 2018 - link
People will often give up freedoms and security for a bit more perceived convenience.A5 - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
Anyone who really wants to can just add stuff the UEFI image or the GM of the DVD.ThreeDee912 - Friday, May 18, 2018 - link
AFAIK, typically newer drivers and other kinds of software are code signed so Win10 will give you warnings and make it difficult for you to install if it's unsigned code or other code that has been tampered with. Signed software typically just requires you to allow it with a UAC prompt and shows the author of the software.