Intel Smart Response Technology: requires RAID to work

The Intel Smart Response Technology allows the use of an SSD to
cache one HDD:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-032826.htm

To do this requires the SATA controller be setup in RAID mode.

I read a guide that suggested I could take my existing HDD's in
a dual-boot, XP/Windows 7, AHCI installation and switch them to
RAID mode without having to re-install the OS's.

What I was planning on doing was:

1. moving the HDD's to the Asmedia ASM1061 SATA controller
which I'll leave in AHCI mode,

2. switch the Intel x79 SATA controller to RAID mode and install the
RAID drivers

3. switch the HDD's back to the x79 SATA controller that's now
in RAID mode and install the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology
software version 10.5 or later.

4. configure the HDD I want cached as a RAID 0, single disk
volume (or maybe I don't need to do this?)

5. install the SSD on one of the intel x79 SATA 3 ports (along
w/the fastest HDD that I want cached)

6. configure the Intel® RST software to accelerate the games/
applications HDD

So will the above work? Will creating a RAID 0, single disk
array destroy all the existing data on a HDD?

RAID 0 is for 2 or more HDDs and for striping multiple HDDs.

I've created RAID 0 volumes consisting of a single HDD using the
IBM ServeRAID M5014 and M5015 SAS/SATA Controllers. Why they
even bothered buying these RAID controllers for one HDD I don't know.

Also, according to the LSI MegaRAID SAS 8708 EM2 Disk Array Controller
.pdf RAID 0 is the only type of RAID level that allows a disk group
with only one HDD.

Looks like raid mode is required for SRT. Funny that, I wouldn't have expected it. Also, I'm running multiple vmware images on one drive-- in raid, for filesystem testing. It doesn't work very fast, lol.

I bet the reason it needs raid is because the SRT system is doing the caching function at a lower level than the Windows environment. And I bet intel built it into the RAID settings instead of achi to avoid potential glitches for the more common use cases.