Gettin 2 seagate 250gb sata2's. raid setup help

[melioz]

Parts are in the mail for my new system:

EVGA E-GEFORCE 9800GX2 600MHZ 1GB 2.0GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDMI HDCP HDTV Out Video Card
In Stock 29030 $629.99 $629.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA2 8.5MS 7200RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drive 5YR MFR Warranty (x2 in raid)


Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Gamer Case 900 ATX 9 Drive Bay No PS Top USB2.0 1394 Audio


Zalman ZM1000-HP 1000W Power Supply ATX 12V 2.2 20/24PIN Modular Cable SLI Ready Heatpipe 140MM Fan


EVGA Nforce 790I Ultra LGA775 ATX DDR3 3 PCI-E X16 2 PCI-E X1 2 PCI SATA2 RAID Sound Motherboard


Corsair XMS3 TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX G 2GB DDR3 2X1GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-27 Dual Channel Memory Kit
To keep this price, you have to check out within 6 days.


Thermaltake BigWater 760I 2 5.25IN Drive Bay Computer Liquid Cooling System with Qc Fittings



Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound Paste NON-ELECTRICAL Conductive 4 Gram


Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Quad Core Processor LGA775 2.66GHZ Yorkfield 1333FSB 12MB OEM No HSF

But the only thing i cant find much info on is how to do a Raid setup.is it as easy as plug 2 Hd's in or is a special part required? i was only introduced to the concept a few days ago. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[NightSurge]

You may want to get what is called a Raid Controller. Some motherboards have built-in Raid capabilities, but a third party Raid Controller is usually much better at providing you with stable benefits. Mind you, these cards can at times get very expensive ($200-300 or more).

 

[CntdwnToExtn]

You will need to install your RAID drivers.

If the motherboard came with a floppy, when you are installing your O/S (assuming XP?) there will be a quick question down at the bottom - hit F6 to install third party RAID or SCSI drivers.

If no floppy, they get installed in windows (off the cd provided with mobo)
you will then need to find in your BIOS the RAID configuration area.

Since you have 2 drives, you will be able to run RAID 0 (stripped, no parity) or RAID 1 (mirror).
I suggest RAID 1 as redundency is a lot better.
make sure you have your hard drives plugged into S-ATA ports 1 and 2

 

[melioz]

Thank you very much for your help. Does not sound to difficult. Still deciding weather to go with vista or xp tho. Seeing as i only have 2gb of ram.

 

[CntdwnToExtn]

i just installed visa home premium last night w/ only 2gig of RAM

running:
sp1, media player, avg antivirus, avg spyware, sidebar, few FF/IE opened
800MB used

it's not bad i guess.
didn't have time to load/play games though.