Do I install drivers from Acer website or leave the ones Vista downloaded?

[jallsey]

My daughter has just got a new Acer 6930G laptop, I have just formatted it and replaced Vista 32bit with 64bit (have already ordered the free Windows 7 and will install 64bit via upgrade on release).

When it rebooted Vista installed most of the drivers it needed for the hardware. For the drivers it could not find I pointed it in the direction of a flashdrive I had prepared (with all the latest drivers from the Acer website). I also installed the Realtek audio drivers off the Acer website, although I was not prompted for them, for the software that goes with them.

My question is should I now install the rest of the drivers I downloaded off the Acer website i.e. Intel ACHI & chipset drivers or should I assume that Vista will have found and installed the latest drivers already. I do not have any question marks in the Device Manager and my concern is that the latest ones on the Acer website may not be the latest drivers anyway.

Also there are multiple drivers for the 6930G on the Acer website from different manufacturers for the webcam, touchpad, wireless, etc. How do I find out exactly what hardware is inside without taking the thing to bits, device manager is not giving me models or manufacturers.

[mac124]

Well theres a saying if "it aint broke, don't fix it."

Persoanlly i prefer to load the drivers from the manufacturers website, that said i know EXACTLY what is in my pc having put it together myself, a laptop however is a whole different story.

I would think that vista loaded generic drivers and as such they maynot be up to date, unless it has since done an update and you updated the "optional" ones? I think drivers come under optional.

If there is any doubt I say if its working leave it as it is??

[d3fiant]

be carefull with the acer software, my son has a 5920G and their software slows it to a crawl. A big offender was theirnetwork software, leaving it for the OS to switch between ethernet and wireless was much easier. Once I uninstalled all of their cr@p it was a much smoother ride. Like said above, 'if it isnt broken...'

[MSIC]

There is a difference however between the acer software and the acer drivers, as follows:
the acer drivers are not actually acer drivers. It's just the basic drivers (written by intel, realtek or whomever) often at the time that the hardware was made, and rarely updated beyond that point. The advantage to acer, in theory, is that it increases the chances of everything working ok, and reduces contact by customers for tech support requests. In theory at least. Personally however I'd always go to the chipset manufacturers website and get the latest, especially for graphics cards, as they change and actually improve with regularity.
The second point then is acer software. Usually crap that's been written by acer themselves mostly to appear be adding some type of value (see 'turbo' type applications) but in reality do nothing that either the user or the OS can't do themselves, often without the 'bloatware' overhead.
Overall, dump the acer software, and perhaps use the acer drivers. At least until you are confident to manually update from the chipset providers directly