Maximum PC

Finally starting to look to the end of my build, first computer in nearly 6 years since my divorce, so to say I'm happy is an understatement! Anyways, here's what I have so far..

Intel Core I7 2600K
Zalman CNPS9500 HS
Asus P8Z68 Deluxe mobo
GSkill Ripjaw DDR3-2300, (4 sticks), 16Gb
EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580
Seasonic X-750 PSU
HT Omega Claro+ 7.1 sound card
ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVD drive
Zalman Z9 Plus Midtower Case
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

So now I've finally decided on the hard drives, going with 2 OWC Mercury Extreme 6G SSD's (240Gb) in a RAID 0. Shooting for pure performance with this array with faster boot times and application loadings. I debated getting a REVO drive, however the reviews from multiple locations have told me to hold off. So I'm left how to partition the RAID 0 as it would be used for the OS and a few games. I've been scouring the web to try and find information on setting up a RAID with these drives, but to no avail. I'm also curious about setting up a couple mechanical HDD's for a second RAID 5 setup in the machine strictly to protect my data, preferably using a few hard drives that are reliable. (is that even possible?) However reading some of the reviews on Newegg of the higher capacity drives, very few last long (especially the 3Tb's). I'm curious if I use the onboard Intel 6G ports for the RAID 0 array, do I have to use an onboard RAID card for the RAID 5 setup? What would I be able to use in such a circumstance? Normally I wouldn't go for such a lavish setup, however I lost a drive a few years ago, and don't EVER want it to happen again! So I'm willing to jump through whatever hoops to keep my data safe. After reading about the spreading out of data over a RAID 0, I figure if I lose a drive it's gone anyways, so why not make it two?

I have a similar setup that you plan using the same motherboard. I have 2 SSD's in RAID 0 and two mechanical in RAID 1. I don't believe your particular brand of SSD should preclude you from running a RAID 0 Setup. I can say generally SSD's are ok for RAID 0. As far as the lifespan of mechanical drives.. I always hear about short lifespan but my real world experience shows they last 3-5 years.. Western Digital being the most reliable in my opinion although I am currently using Seagate.

So.. that motherboard has 2 RAID controllers Marvell and Intel. Use one controller for your RAID 0 and the other for RAID 5. Look into which supports RAID 5 (I think it's the Intel but am not too sure) and just use the other for your RAID 0. They may both support RAID 5 but again I'm not sure. If you download the ASUS manual for that board it's very easy to find.

I'm going to be doing something very similar to you. I have just ordered 2 Corsair GT 120GB to be put in RAID 0 and I will also have 3 3TB Hitachi drives in RAID 5 on an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX motherboard which has 6 SATA III ports.

The reason why I choose Hitachi 3TB is because since I'm going to be doing a RAID setup, I will have one drive fault tolerance so I dont think reliability isn't as much of an issue. And also $120 for 3TB is hell of a good deal.

Once I build my setup during this week or next, I'll post back here if I have any problems or if it all just works fine.

go into the bios and go to the storage controller settings and change it to raid. then save your settings and restart the computer. if the motherboard is using Intel RST for raid you can get into by pressing crt + I when the console menu appears. go in a create your raids.

I've finished with my setup not too long ago, though it was delayed by a faulty motherboard. My SSD array and my HDD array both work wonderfully. I'm not using a RAID card with them so I'm using the hardware RAID in the BIOS to set them up. Though for your boot drive you will need to download the RAID driver from your motherboard website before installing your OS and apply the driver though the Windows repair menu.

My writes on my RAID 5 setup varies a lot. From files up to 1MB the write is less than 30 MB/s, but it shoots up from there to 200MB/s. My reads are about a constant 230MB/s.

For my boot drive I get about a constant 800 MB/s read and a constant 860MB/s write. Not the 1GB/s read and writes I was expecting but still great.

So basically you should go ahead and do your setup if you haven't already.

One bad thing I've heard about the BIOS RAID I did, is that if one drive fails, you need the same exact system configuration in order to restore the RAID, but I haven't ran into any failures yet.