Zitat von Coldblackice im Beitrag #1

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Do actual hard drives themselves need drivers?

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All Windows Operating systems need a universally working generic driver (named DISK.SYS) to manage all drives, which are connected with the computer. You can find this driver within the Device Manager, when you open the "Disk drives" section, do a right click onto the listed drives and then choose the "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver Details" options. The listed drivers have nothing to do with the performance and the features of the related drives.
HDDs, SSDs and Optical Drives, which are connected with an on-board IDE/AHCI/RAID Controller, additionally need an IDE/AHCI/RAID driver (.SYS file), which supports the specific IDE/AHCI/RAID Controller's HardwareIDs (VEN_XXXX and DEV_XXXX). The sort and the manufacturer of the hard drive itself does not matter at all. You can find these drivers, which are responsible for the performance of the drives, within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" resp. "Storage Controllers" section of the Device Manager.
So if your Samsung SSD is connected to an Intel SATA port running in AHCI mode, the OS needs a driver, which is able to manage the specific DeviceID of the Intel SATA AHCI Controller. This can be done either by the generic on-board MS AHCI driver (on Win7 named MSAHCI.SYS, on Win8/8.1 named STORAHCI.SYS) or by an appropriate AHCI driver delivered by the SATA Controller manufacturer Intel (name of the driver: IASTOR.SYS or IASTORA.SYS). Hard drivers manufacturers like Samsung do not offer any IDE/AHCI/RAID drivers.

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do hard drive drivers have anything to do with performance-related issues/features of the drive

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Yes, the performance-related issues/features are managed by the driver, which is managing the related IDE/AHCI/RAID Controller, where the HDD/SSD is connected.

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or are they sort of in the same boat as INF's, and just for simple/basic naming and connection?

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No. By the way: Information (.INF) files like the Intel Chipset "Drivers" just contain some text informations and are no real drivers (= .SYS files).

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I have a newly connected Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I'm in the process of juggling around Intel SATA controller drivers (x58/ICH10R) to find which gives the best performance. At the same time, I see that the actual 840 drive is using a default Microsoft driver from 2006 (like all MS drivers).

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If you want to see the specific AHCI driver, which the OS is actually using, you have to open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section, to do a right click onto the listed AHCI Controller > "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver details".

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Thus, I'm wondering if that driver has anything to do with performance and/or abilities, and if I perhaps should seek out a Samsung driver instead. My hunch is that it's not anything performance related -- that the "magic" is all in the controller and its driver -- and that I wouldn't even be able to find a Samsung 840 driver anyway.

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Yes, there is no Samsung AHCI driver available.

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Is there any benefit to be had by updating a SATA controller's OROM?

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According to CPL0 the Intel RAID ROM module and its version has no effect as long as the Intel SATA Controller is running in IDE or AHCI mode. In the past I haven't been sure about that, because BIOSes of older Intel ICH chipset mainboards do contain a special Intel AHCI ROM module, whereas more actual Intel chipset mainboard BIOSes don't. That let me think, that parts of the Intel RAID ROM module may be used as "Firmware" for the Intel SATA AHCI Controller as well, but this seems to be not the case.