clean install - manual driver install or use thinkvantage system update?

I'm going to clean install windows 7 on a t420, and am a bit confused when it comes to drivers RE which specific ones to download and where to install them when i get to that point. If i understand it correctly, the Thinkvantage System Update can automatically detect which drivers i'll need?
But let's say i don't use that, and choose to manually download individual drivers:


1. Which?
which ones do i really need?
The 'chipset driver' for example, has 3 entries on the lenovo site:

Are all 3 necessary, or just the last one?

Do i need this as well as 'infinst_autol.exe' from intel?
- a few of the guides i've looked at don't even mention this program, do i have to use it manually if not using the Thinkvantage System Update? How?


2. Where?
Does it matter where the drivers are saved? Do i have to set it up so that the format for the file containing the drivers is identical to the SWTOOLS layout so that the OS can 'see' them? or if i end up using any thinkvantage utilities, will 'non-oem' location of drivers make them not work etc? or can they all just go into the same folder named 'c:/drivers' for example?
I don't know how operating systems/drivers work in this regard and am interested in knowing if anyone can explain it (and not that i'm going to keep moving them around, but does the OS 'remember' where they are originally installed, or could you move them anywhere and they would still work?).


3. In what order?
I've read several guides that seem to say different things - the big lenovo clean install thread seems to be vista specific so i'm not sure that the driver install order applies to windows 7, others just say install the wireless driver and rely on the thinkvantage system update. Should i install the drivers before installing Service Pack 1?

 

Basically you just need the last two, you'll need to run the Intel Chipset installer while for the Intel AMT driver you can just simply direct using the Device Manager.

If I recall from the last time I clean installed my T420, this application is not needed to clean out the Device Manager.

Not really, as long you remember where it is when you redirect drivers via the Device Manager then it doesn't matter where you save the drivers. So you could even keep the DRIVERS folder from SWTOOLS on to your USB Flash Drive for future use.

I recommend obtaining a Windows 7 ISO with SP1 slipstreamed as it can save a lot of time. You can obtain them from this thread here.

Lenovo's are not strict in terms of driver order. The graphics and network drivers are the obvious ones to deal with first, for the rest there are no strict order. The only exception that I can recall is the Bluetooth module which you can only activate once you have the Lenovo Hotkeys Integration installed by pressing FN+F5.