Maximum PC

In theory, you could do this. Create a volume from the 4 drives and then mirror that. However your speed benefits will be lost since it has to write to the two drives at the same time. Now, you could, I guess, create a process to image over the contents of the main array to a standalone drive. However that is more work than it is worth, IMO.

Bottom line, you can do it. But I don't believe it is worth the effort. An SSD and a single data drive with an external backup would be more efficient and cheaper when you consider how much time it will take you to deal with your convoluted array and purchase the software to do the cloning.

With my MOBO it is really an easy task of setting up a RAID array. The best SSDs right now do maybe up to ~ 450 MB/s. With my set up I would get at least 500 MB/s, and with the numbers I have seen I would be just a bit over that. Not to mention the fact that I would have 1TB of memory! If you were looking for that much space on an SSD you would be spending ~ $2000-$5000. I know I would constantly be mirroring for this to work but it would be worth it if it saves me from a total reinstall.

On-board controllers aren't that great. They do the job, but a solid MEH.

Without having the 8 drives to do a proper RAID 0+1 you won't see that speed, especially not with an onboard controller.

Okay, I have just confirmed with my systems guy at work (who just attended a storage conference). The basic industry feel is that SSDs are hype. Transfer speeds are only attainable from a virgin state. After a few weeks time they degrade and aren't as fast given the price/GB ratio of conventional disk drives.

You cannot do what you want to do with a pure RAID solution in a consumer grade product. It isn't possible. You may however be able to have a scheduled job copy the contents of the array over to your backup drive. However I question the necessity of this. Use the other drive for a data backup and keep your OS and data separate.

If it was me? Two RAID 0 arrays, One for the OS and one for data. Have a nightly backup job copy the data to an internally mounted data drive (5 internal drives) and then have a twice a week process copy that to an external drive.

That is true but once you "break them in" they are still generally faster than anything else. My issue is price to storage capacity ratio, I figure give it a year and it will go the way of everything else in the IT industry. Im looking into clonezilla for my solution. Thanks so much everyone for your help !

I have heard that an actual RAID controller will give you faster transfer speeds, as well as take the extra load off your CPU. The problem it that I have seen on other forums that my MOBO wont let you boot from a RAID setup like that. Now whether that is due too idiots or ASUS dropping the ball idk.

A real RAID controller is better, that is for sure. Onboard is probably fine though for what you are doing, since you can't make your solution 100% with RAID anyway. That and a good standalone RAID controller is going to run you some coin, might as well buy that SSD lol.

The only way to go is with a dedicated raid card if you use the array for storage. You can move it from machine to machine and not loose anything, where if you loose the raid chip on the motherboard it will be hell replacing the exact motherboard with the exact raid controller on it to get your data back.

Nasty