Z97 Extreme 6

I realize that driver updates are always considered better or improvements over earlier, "outdated" drivers. That can be true in some cases but is an oversimplification of the situation.

Another factor is whether or not the combination of drivers used for the various chips on a mother board will work together without any problems. The drivers provided on a board's driver download page are those that (should) have been verified by the mother board manufacture to function correctly by themselves and not interfere with the other hardware/chips on the board.

There is also the reality about whether or not an updated driver or chipset software will be of any value for a board, as you have said in your post. This issue is caused by the limited documentation regarding what the updates provide, as well as our own limited knowledge about what the various software actually does.

For example, the Intel Chipset Device Software (INF Update Utility), the INF driver ver:10.0.21 on your board's download page, does not install a driver, but does install .inf files that identify the Intel hardware on your board. The .inf files are used by other driver installation programs to correctly configure the driver installation.

The latest INF update program available from Intel, 10.0.27, contains the updates noted in the Release Notes: http://downloadmirror.intel.com/20775/eng/ReleaseNotes%2010.0.27.htm

If you were installing Windows on your board, the newest file might be of some value. If you were using one of the Broadwell 5th generation processors, then it would be. An earlier version of the INF installation program would otherwise be all you need.

The Intel Management Engine (IME) software corresponds with a chipset family, the 9 series chipset on your board uses the IME version 10 software. Updates to the version 10 software may contain updates for Broadwell processors that you don't use, so are of little to no value.

Intel no longer provides the IME software directly on their download page. You must dig around to find it, and then be careful what you then download for use. Mother board manufactures are now the intended source of the IME software.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=Intel+Management+Engine

You can always get the latest Intel network drivers via their download page:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/

The Intel IRST RAID/AHCI SATA driver has always been important to me. But I've seen several new official versions that had terrible bugs in them. A version 11.6 IRST driver's Windows UI would not start if the ASMedia SATA controller on the board was enabled. Another in the version 11 group had a memory leak and was removed. The 12.0 version had problems with RAID arrays. The latest versions have new features that are not supported on chipsets earlier than the eight series chipsets.

Speaking of which, Intel stopped making their own mother boards with their 8 series chipset boards. Which is why it is more difficult to find drivers for Z97 boards, Intel does not make any.