Raid 0 & Raid 1 on the same board?

[sgrinavi]

I am going to be setting up my new R2E later this week and wanted to do a RAID 0 with 3 WD6400AAKS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218) for the OS & APPS and, if possible, RAID 1 with a pair of Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317) for my data.

(I had one of each of the drives already so it is an inexpensive, upgrade $90 for the 1TB drive and $140 for the pair of 640's)


Here's the stupid questions:

Will it work with the on-board RAID controller?

(Performance is an issue, but I am not the type to spend an extra $300 to get 5% )

Any particular reason I should, or shouldn't, use JMicron or the Intel Matrix?

I don't need 1.8 TB (3x640) for my OS/programs, does it make sense to partition the 640's so the OS (Vista Ultimate 64) is on the outside of the platters? I don't recall seeing that option available in the BIOS RAID setup... when do you do that?

(I have the OS & my apps installed on about 150 GB now; 640GB would probably be plenty)


Thanks

[cyberkost]

Not a very constructive response, but switch to Linux and with your drives you'll be a happy camper (check my signature ;) ) One other thing -- make sure to use AHCI BIOS as it unleashes NCQ and other stuff -- gave me 10% boost in read speeds.

[mystykmax]

The ICHR10R is a great southbridge. I'd use it before the JMicron. In the past JMicron has had some issues.

[bigsnyder]

Researching this myself. If I remember correctly, you should be able to run multiple arrays from the onboard controller. As far as "short stroking" the drives, I believe this can be done when you set the partition size. Might be another step, but I am not aware of one yet. There is an article at Tom's Hardware on short stroking that is pretty decent, might be some more insight there.

[sgrinavi]

Not a very constructive response, but switch to Linux and with your drives you'll be a happy camper (check my signature ;) )

LOL, that would be fun; too bad my Autodesk software won't work

One other thing -- make sure to use AHCI BIOS as it unleashes NCQ and other stuff -- gave me 10% boost in read speeds.

So you can use the AHCI BIOS with the Intel RAID? Everytime I have set it up I've used RAID in the BIOS. I am an idiot when it comes to setting up this stuff.. sorry

EDIT N/M I RTFM (http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/CS-015988.htm).... set up is simple with Vista and no driver disk is required. Duh.

[bigsnyder]

I ran across this thread (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=565177) which gives step by step instructions. Hopefully you will find this useful, I know I have.

[sgrinavi]

I ran across this thread which gives step by step instructions. Hopefully you will find this useful, I know I have.

You are the man!