here is a quick breakdown without going into details
DRIVE CACHING
"write caching" is good to have enabled on single drives that are not in a RAID array.
"write caching" is good to have enabled on "battery-backed cached" RAID arrays
"write caching" is NOT GOOD to have enabled on RAID...
quick format using default settings, they were both brand new drives i bought 3 days ago, i partitioned them using windows 7 sp1 64 bit and i setup the raid in the INTEL RAID CONTROLLER ROM/BIOS
I have a Intel 2500K Process and a 3TB RAID 1 on a 2 x SATA 3Gb/s Port on a Intel® Rapid Storage Technology RAID ARRAY. Im using the 3TB RAID 1 ARRAY for storage and im using a Crucial M4 128GB drive for my primary boot drive. My M4 drive operates normal good speeds. However on my RAID 1 ARRAY...
for about $20-$30 on a good aftermarket cpu cooler you should be able to hit 4.5 ghz with decent temps. Its not really necessary to spend $50+ just to overclock.
I'm using the Prolimatech Megahalems in a "push config" with the Scythe "ULTRA KAZE,
my temps never go past 57c on LOAD @ 4800mhz 1.35v vcore!!
Im using G.SKILL 1600 Ripjaws 2x4 (8GB) 1.5v 9-9-9-24-2N w/ XMP (F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL)