Should I download the old drivers or keep the Windows drivers?  

I recently upgraded this old Dell M1530 Vista x64 laptop to Windows 8 Enterprise x64.

Apparently the sound company for it (Sigmatel) went out of business before Windows 7 was even released and their latest drivers are some ancient Vista drivers.

Should I download and install the Sigmatel drivers or continue to use the drivers that come with Windows 8? (They seem to be fine so far, just seeing if there's any other input on this).

Do you think that the Windows 8 drivers would probably be better based on the fact that they're much newer and made to run in 8, regardless of the fact that it wasn't made for my system specifically?

All I've ever really cared about is what has the best maximum output levels. I really hate sound drivers that are very limited in how loud you can make them output. My old laptop (this M1530) is actually better than my current Origin beast laptop in terms of sound because the sound driver on my new laptop (Realtek) doesn't allow very much loudness at all on a set of headphones. The only reason I ever liked the Sigmatel drivers is because they let you turn up the volume until it's so loud it could blow your ears (and your speakers) out.

Or perhaps it's hardware and has nothing to do with the drivers. I dunno, I'm too stupid.

Point is, drivers that came with my system that aren't designed to work with this OS or go with the Win 8 default drivers?

Sounds good. The Windows 8 driver working fine.

Eh, I'm just one of those guys that's obsessed with keeping his system up-to-date with the latest and greatest his system will support.

It works, so I probably shouldn't care. Probably makes no difference which I use, except one is designed to work fine in 8 and the other isn't. The Win 8 ones are probably better to go with.

Most certainly use the current drivers. You would only use Vista or Windows 7 drivers if there was no alternative. There is no assurance that these drivers are even compatible with Windows 8.

Hi there
As an Old time Engineer I also subscribe to the theory - "If it ain't broke -- don't fix it".
Over a reasonably long career this has always worked well for me.

If all the Windows drivers are working correctly and you aren't missing any functionality (for example you aren't getting all the possible screen resolutions the video card should deliver for your monitor) THEN LEAVE WELL ALONE.

Cheers
jimbo