IT7 and RAID

Hello all,

I have a quick question:

I have already purchased my new IT7 and various componentry along with it, among this stuff I bought 4 two-connector rounded IDE cables.


I don't have a RAID setup and I'm not sure I want one (I don't know if the performance outweighs the risks, etc) however, I need to know if the RAID connectors on the board can be used as regular ATA channels.

I was intending to run my CD-ROM drives on the main board connectors, and the two hard drives on the RAID connectors. But I just realized that I might not be able to do turn RAID off.

If it's not possible, I suppose I could move to RAID since my two HD's are identical. Otherwise, I have an ATA/100 card from Promise.


Also, any threads that you know of that describe the performance increase with/without RAID?


Thanks!

-Drew

You can use HDs on the raid connectors without actually using them in a raid setup....I believe it is as easy as plugging them in. To actually use raid you have to use the raid bios to create an array, assigning which drives you want to be part of each array you create. If you dont create any array it should just treat your drives seperatly.

As for performance gains I think they are kinda controversial. The general tone I hear about IDE raid is that if you move a lot of large files it can be an improvement, but otherwise you wont notice much (some even say it doesnt offer much improvement ever). So good question there.

As far as security goes it is a risk to use raid 0, I think that varies some by controller (at least for problems not associated with drive failure). For instance, some controllers are affected more by a sudden power outage than others. So it is a risk, how much of a risk is hard to say though.