My build:



Intel i7-4770 CPU with stock cooler (not overclocked)

Asus Z87-Plus motherboard

32 GB of Kingston KHX16C9P1K2/16 RAM (4x8GB) - from Asus compatibility list for this motherboard

2x2TB internal hard drives - WD Caviar Black WD2002FAEX

Pioneer BDR-2208 Blu-ray drive (retail, includes software for Blu-ray playback)

Asus GTX650TIB-DC2OC-2GD5 GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST graphics card

SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W power supply

CoolerMaster N400 case (note that all time favorite CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo is VERYTIGHTFIT for this case - about 4mm between the top of the heat sink and side cover. I decided not to use it)

Windows 7 x64



!!! DO NOT INSTALL ANY DRIVERS FROM USB FLASH DRIVE - COPY INSTALLERS TO THE HARD DRIVE AND INSTALL FROM THERE !!!



Connect your mouse/keyboard to USB 2 ports on the front of your case (this motherboard doesn't have USB 2 ports on board) because Windows 7 doesn't have built-in USB 3 drivers on DVD and Windows 7 setup won't recognize it when connected to USB 3 ports.





[DO NOT USE WINDOWS 7 X64 DVD WITH INTEGRATED SP1 IF YOU CAN]



[REQUIRED DRIVERS]

1) [REQUIRED] Network Driver



2) [REQUIRED] USB 3.0: Intel USB 3.0 Driver

!!! DO NOT INSTALL ANY DRIVERS, ESPECIALLY THIS ONE FROM USB FLASH DRIVE - COPY INSTALLERS TO THE HARD DRIVE AND INSTALL FROM THERE !!!

Intel explicitly warns you about it in README file (but who reads these, right?) for USB 3 drivers, which makes sense - while driver is installed the device is connected and disconnected and setup program is running from that drive - not a good idea. To be safe I would follow this for all other drivers as well.





3) [REQUIRED] Intel ME: Management Engine Driver

4) [REQUIRED] Chipset: Intel® Chipset Device Software for Intel® Desktop Boards

[OPTIONAL DRIVERS]



5) [OPTIONAL] Audio: Realtek* ALC Audio Driver for Windows 7*



6) [OPTIONAL] Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics Driver for Windows* 7

7) [OPTIONAL] RAID: Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver for Intel Desktop Boards

8) [OPTIONAL] "Intel® Rapid Start Technology" and "Intel® Smart Connect Technology for Intel® Desktop Boards" drivers.

9) [OPTIONAL, NOT RECOMMENDED UNLESS YOU USE ASUS AI SUITE] AMDA00 Interface device

10) [OPTIONAL] Asmedia SATA drivers

["The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load..." issue]



Level Date and Time Source Event ID Task Category



Critical 7/18/2013 12:23:37 PM Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode 10111 User-mode Driver problems.



The device AMDA00 Interface (location (unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash. Windows will attempt to restart the device 5 more times.

Please contact the device manufacturer for more information about this problem.



Critical 7/18/2013 12:23:37 PM Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode 10110 User-mode Driver problems.



A problem has occurred with one or more user-mode drivers and the hosting process has been terminated.

This may temporarily interrupt your ability to access the devices.



[My experience with Asus AI Suite]



UPDATE YOUR BIOS BEFORE PROCEEDING!!! You can do this before installing the OS. As of now Asus already has BIOS v. 1207 update on their website.Intel explicitly warns you about it in README file (but who reads these, right?) for USB 3 drivers, which makes sense - while driver is installed the device is connected and disconnected and setup program is running from that drive - not a good idea. To be safe I would follow this for all other drivers as well.NOTE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO FORCE WINDOWS 8 NETWORK DRIVERS TO INSTALL UNDER WINDOWS SERVER 2012. One needs to modify .INF file. The guide on how to do this is here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1772066 As this was my first build I wanted to make sure all components work perfectly together (or as close to that as can realistically be achieved).Thankfully, Microsoft provides a useful Custom View in Event Log calledthat shows you all errors/warnings from all Windows Logs. If after each boot you have something new here it is worth investigating. All software and driver issues I needed to fix were found in that view at one point or another.This post is a result of about 4 test OS installs and about a week worth of tinkering with different drivers and Asus AI Suite.Reason is that SP1 was not correctly integrated and you will be receiving this error in Event Log after each boot:==================================See this for the fix (it is a known issue): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545227 Use original Windows 7 DVD without integrated SP1 instead if you can. Yes, it will add about an hour to Window updates installation.I am somewhat skeptical about the quality of Asus software after owning Asus RT-N66U router (see my review for it: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1J4UH...e=UTF8&ASIN=B006QB1RPY&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag= ) and giving a try to Asus AI Suite. AI Suite just wouldn't install when I tried it first time - it seemed the installer process was running but application window just wasn't visible (this is a known problem often mentioned on forums starting about 2 years ago and Asus still hasn't fixed it). On my subsequent test OS setup I got it installed but I didn't do anything special and don't know what "the fix" turned out to be. Also Google "Asus com service memory leak" and look at Asus forum - there they publish semi-official "Asus AI Suite removal utility". The fact that this utility is even needed tells you 2 things: a) enough people want to get rid of AI Suite that such utility had to be written and b) uninstaller for AI Suite doesn't work properly. So I didn't want to install anything from Asus CD in my final OS setup and decided to use drivers from Intel website as much as I could.!!! NOTE THAT BIOS UPDATE FROM INTEL PAGE DOESN'T APPLY TO YOUR ASUS BOARD. Same for Intel Desktop Utilities. !!!As of now I use PROWin7_64_18.3.exe downloaded from Intel website.Immediately after Windows 7 x64 setup network driver is not installed. So what you need to do first is go here on another internet connected computer:Select "Desktop Boards" for Product FamilySelect "Intel 8 Series Chipset Boards" for product lineSelect "Intel Desktop Board DZ87KLT-75K" for Product namePress "Find" and select your Operating System. This will narrow down the list to the subset for your OS.Click on "LAN: Intel® Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver for Windows 7" - you will be presented with 2 files on the next page. One for Windows 7 32 bit, another - for Windows 7 64 bit. Download the one you want to USB flash drive and run it on your PC with Z87-Plus board.Now you have network connectivity and can download everything directly.Before proceeding with Windows Update I recommend installing all drivers first.As of now I use USB3.0_Win7_2.5.0.19.zip downloaded from Intel websiteAs of now I use MEI_allOS_1.5M_FW_9.0.2.1345_PV.exe downloaded from Intel websiteAs of now I use INF_allOS_9.4.0.1017_PV.exe downloaded from Intel websiteAs of now I use AUD_Win8_Win7_6.0.1.6886_PV.exe downloaded from Intel websiteYes, this driver seems optional because everything seems to work without it using Microsoft driver and digital outputs are properly detected. However, I still recommend installing it BUT get one from Intel instead of using the latest available from Asus as of now (Realtek Audio Driver V6.0.1.6954 is latest from Asus). If you install the one from Asus you will have audit failure message on each Windows boot in Event Log. The one from Intel (it is still by Realtek and Realtek HD Audio Manager in Control Panel will have Asus logo on it) doesn't suffer from it.Full text from Security Event Log:=======================================Googling that one of the explanations I found on Asus website was that some of the Realtek driver files are not signed properly: http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...1&model=P8Z77-V+DELUXE&page=1&SLanguage=en-us I then reverted driver to Generic Microsoft driver and this message went away. Installed Realtek Driver from Intel website and message didn't come back. So it seems that ***SOME*** of Realtek drivers suffer from it.Before I added discrete graphics card I used GFX_Win7_Win8_64_9.18.10.3165.exe downloaded from Intel and experienced no problems.You only need this if you don't use additional discrete graphics card or if you do and want to have discrete card and Intel HD 4600 be available at the same time (this needs to be enabled in BIOS)I don't use RAID and ended up not using it in my final OS setup. I benchmarked my hard drive with and without it and got the same results. If you don't install it Microsoft driver will be used.These technologies seem like gimmicks to me so I didn't install them. This boardsupports this features but they are disabled in BIOS by default.!!! PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DRIVER MAY HAVE SERIOUS ISSUES. FOR MORE DETAILS SEE ["The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load..." issue] SECTION BELOW !!!IF YOU DO USE ASUS AI SUITE SKIP THIS SECTION AS THIS DRIVER WILL BE INSTALLED FOR YOU AS A PART OF ASUS INSTALLAt this point, however, you will still have one unknown device in Device Manager that will identify as "ACPI\PNP0A0A". I don't know how important for this device to have driver installed because everything seemed to work when I don't have it. From the post from Asus representative here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1039985567&highlight=amda00#post1039985567 (see item 8) you only need it if you use Asus AI Suite software. I decided not to use AI Suite and left this device as is.If you want to have driver for ACPI\PNP0A0A setup while not installing Asus AI Suite - it involves using Asus driver CD and dreaded Asus com driver will be installed as a part of this process.Here is what you need to do: on your Asus DVD that came with your board navigate to \Bin\AMDA00\x64 (or x32 for 32 bit OS but I haven't tried it). Run AsusSetup and after it completes that device will now be under "System Devices". It is called "AMDA00 Interface". If you go to to "Driver file details" you will see that Asus com service is listed as a part of the files from which this driver package consists. I will monitor it's memory usage and report if I notice a leak. I don't know if disabling it affects anything.Another thing that you may want to install from Asus CD is driver for ASMedia SATA controller. Again, I am not sure it is needed. It is in \Drivers\RAID\Asmedia folder. I ended up not using it in my final OS install - in that case Microsoft driver is used.When I thought I resolved everything I noticed I was receiving this warning in System Event Log after the boot if I had USB Flash drive plugged in:============================Searching has brought changing startup option for "Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework" service from Manual (default setting) to Automatic. On OS install that didn't have Asus driver for AMDA00 it fixed the problem.However, when I tried that on OS install that did have Asus driver for AMDA00 installed this caused new errors about Asus driver crashing to appear in Event Log:=====================If you then go to Device Manager you will see that AMDA00 Interface device is listed with exclamation mark and has this in Properties: "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)"I am fairly positive this indicated there is some kind of problem with Asus driver. Is it possible that I was not supposed to set startup for "Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework" service to Automatic? Yes, but it fixes original problem ("The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load...") and doesn't cause any extra issues when Asus driver is not installed.I will elaborate on this later. Short version I decided against using it.=========I surely hope you are just as tired from reading this as I was from writing this