So I decided to go with W8 and went to download the mainboard drivers for my nforce 780i and Nvidia doesn't have any. Is this correct? Do I need my maindboard drivers?
This is not a uncommon issue. Lot of hardware don't have w8 drivers. There are no win8 drivers for my motherboard-asus sabertooth X58 or my raid card, areca 1213-4i.... It is my opinion that since most people hate win 8 or at least it's interface, many hardware manufacturers are not making win 8 drivers. You can try win 7 drivers and or try win 7 drivers in win7 compatibility mode It reminds me of the poor hardware support given to win 98, M.E. edition.
Intel uses a unified driver installation package. Intel also provides Microsoft with drivers to package with Windows.... http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/intel_chipset_device_installation_download.html
Site url: http://www.station-drivers.com/ You will be able to find your motherboard or one that is in the same series as your model. Search here: http://www.station-drivers.com/search.htm Or pick from list: http://www.station-drivers.com/page/drivers.htm
Go to device manager and look for yellow exclamation marks. If there are none then all your hardware has drivers that your OS recognises as a proper driver. Profit. Windows 8 is new and it has a lot of drivers built in.
Windows drivers provide basic functionality but often lack features or are quite old and outdated. An example of this is Windows 8 supplied SATA controller driver for Intel chipsets v8.6.2.1022, Intel is now up to v12.0.0.1082. The basic Windows 8 SATA driver does not give you the full caching options that the full driver package does. Pillmonster is correct - download the driver package for Windows 7 from Nvidia and give that a shot. If it fails to install then I would use Windows Update to search for suitable drivers.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...rsion=Windows 8, 64-bit*&DownloadType=Drivers http://www.areca.us/support/s_windows/driver/win8_64bit.zip