Every three years or so I build myself a new PC, but the last time I did, an internal DVD drive was not part of the spec. I simply don’t use discs enough to warrant one. Instead, I got an external USB DVD drive and expect that to last me well into the future. Now it seems, I have one less reason to pull that drive out of the cupboard.

EVGA’s global product management director, Jacob Freeman, announced on Twitter that the company is dumping the driver DVD that ships with every new motherboard. Instead, you’ll find an EVGA-branded 8GB USB stick in the box.

No more driver DVDs in future EVGA motherboards including the new H370. Instead you get the drivers on this small 8GB flash drive ?? pic.twitter.com/3ACXv3snFp(Opens in a new window)

— Jacob Freeman (@EVGA_JacobF) May 17, 2018(Opens in a new window)

It makes sense to do this for consumers who are building their own PCs because a DVD or Blu-ray drive isn’t a popular option anymore. We increasingly stream our media, PC games are downloaded via services such as Steam, and applications are mostly downloaded now, too. At the same time, all motherboards have USB ports, so this switch is a no-brainer really.

The 8GB stick will be used for all future EVGA boards, with the first confirmed to include it being the EVGA H370 Stinger(Opens in a new window) mini-ITX motherboard.

I’m sure most will welcome the move to a USB stick, with the biggest problem likely to be losing it. Another benefit alongside no longer requiring an optical drive just for drivers is the fact you can probably reuse the stick when the drivers are no longer required. Sure, it’s only 8GB, but that’s enough for quite a bit of music and is a drive you probably won’t mind if it does get lost because it was free.

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