msi What programs do I need to keep?

Bianchi789

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Dec 19, 2013
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I just built my first PC and I installed the drivers and all, but now I have a bunch of programs that came with the motherboard and video card, but I Dont know which i should keep or which i shouldn't?

Can someone tell me the use of half these things? Thanks!

CommandCenter
Fast Boot
Live Update 5
MSI(TM) Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility
'Qualcomm Atheros Killer Network Manager
GeForce Experience
Super RAID
Super-Charger
EVGA Precision X
TP-LINK Wireless Configuration Utility
 
Solution


Quotes From MSI site:

Super Charger...

Tree_Hugger

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Aug 24, 2011
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Google is your friend
 

Tree_Hugger

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Well, Precision X is used to overclock your GPU
GeForce Experience is part of the nVidia driver package with some nifty and helpful features, you should try it out
TP-LINK Wireless Configuration Utility I'm guessing is used for a wifi adapter you have installed

no idea about the other things. Try checking the motherboard's page on the manufacturers website for descriptions of the programs

Edit: are you using multiple drives in RAID? if not, just get rid of that program
 

Bianchi789

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1 SSD 1 HDD and 1 External Drive
 

Tree_Hugger

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So no RAID array then.
what mobo do you have?
 

Bianchi789

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Z87-G45
 

Tree_Hugger

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Quotes From MSI site:

Super Charger: "The utility for msi products to change Apple iPad/iPhone series." I'm guessing they meant "charge" not "change" Sounds useless

Intel tuning: another overclocking software. If you are gonna overclock you could check out this program , but most people just do it through the BIOS. Your choice

Live update: "Online update BIOS/Driver/Firmware/Utility.
• Live Monitor auto-detects and suggests the latest BIOS/Driver/Utilities information."
Sounds somewhat useful. For what it's worth, i have gigabytes equivalent (@BIOS) for my gigabyte board installed and was useful for when i needed to update my bios

Command center: another OC utility. again, just do it through bios

Fast boot: "Boot faster for MSI products" You have an SSD so sounds useless

If I were you I'd just get rid of all except GeForce, TPLink, and Qualcomm
Keep EVGA PX if you want to OC your GPU or check on other GPU vitals like temp and fan speed, etc. I've used it before and it's rather good
Maybe keep live update just in case you ever need it. Or not.
You can always redownload if needed
http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-G45-GAMING.html#download


 
Solution

Colin Lee

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Mar 16, 2013
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Although belated I found this thread after building a new PC using an MSI Z97 MB.
Super Charger is actually the only really useful piece of software here (if your MB supports it). You connect to the red USB2 header on the MB and enable the Super Charger which turns whichever USB ports you have plugged into it to a charger only (no data) which puts out 1.5amps (compared to 0,5amps normally). Perfect for tablets and BIG mobiles but works with any USB charging device.

Intel Extreme Tuning is worth keeping even if just for information..

Live Update is useful for checking you've got the latest version installed but doesn't seem to work when you try to update using it. Just download from the site and update manually.

Command Center is useless and crashes all the time on Windows 8.1.

As you say Fast Boot is pointless if you've got an SSD.

There are other bits and pieces such as Smart Utilities but none of them seem worth the effort.
 

Staticfx

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Command Center isnt bad if you want to tweak some fans setting temporarily...
FastBoot is great! Even with an SSD because it skips the bios boot part.. can shave 2 seconds off the boot :)
 

Cleric670

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Aug 26, 2015
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-Command Center is great for people who are NOT familiar with overclocking and want something that will give a moderate OC that's literally as simply as clicking one button. It's the interface to use the motherboard onboard overclock that most MSI boards have called the "OCGenie" it's an electrically operated / sealed switch on your mainboard that enables a slight overclock. Older boards used to have a button you could press on the mainboard but all the newer ones use CommandCenter to operate that switch digitally. It was ABSOLUTELY GLITCHY with windows 7/8/8.1 but for some reason works perfectly with Win10 ??

-Live Update is fine as well, small and easy interface to quickly check version of all your drivers, make sure to add an exception to your firewall for it or it will run at turtle speed.

-Geforce Experience, easy way to keep your Nvidia drivers up to date.

I don't use the rest, but I would keep SuperCharger if you do regularly charge usb devices from your machine. Just remember it disables data on that port while supercharger is on.
 

TrailTrackers

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Jan 15, 2016
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Again, belated, but I'm pretty sure you meant USB 3 didn't you? But maybe it was USB 2 back when you wrote your response; with the MSI X99A XPOWER it's the red usb 3 port on the motherboard.

Also, the Fast Boot isn't necessarily worthless just because a guy has an SSD, and saying that it is just plain silly imho. I installed the Samsung 950 Pro M.2 512GB which gives me sub 4s cold boot times to the login screen of Windows 10 Pro, but I may still use the Fast Boot utility. The Fast Boot utility just causes the boot process to skip detection of certain things like CD, DVD, B-Ray disc drives, etc., which would reduce my already fast boot times even more. Also, you get the "Go2Bios" feature; clicking this restarts the computer and goes straight to bios so you don't have to mess around with beating on the "Del" key.
 

DLROKen

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Get only Killer Network Drivers (without them you won't connect to the internet), because the rest is only going to make any system slower, no matter what anyone say's. I just did a full Diskpart clean of my Hard Drive at command prompt level, did a fresh install of Windows without any of the extra trash, then did a selective installation using only the very core parts from the MSI disk that came with my Z97 gaming 7, and performance is amazing, bench marks all through the roof. I then added a few more of the MSI features from the disk, and bam... progressively it slows down. I am completely removing all MSI software, except what is essential to get my computer running, and connected to the internet where it can get the other needed updates for full instillation.
All the other conjecture above is most just flat out opinion. True some of the debate is based on educated opinion, but when it is all said and done, the truth is that the less junk you have running on your pc the better your performance will be no matter what any Nerd on earth tells you.