I like touching. :wub:
The Marvell is probably the second set of SATA 6G ports, and are needed if they are used. The JMicron is probably the eSATA ports, and may be needed if they are used (if only JBOD mode, maybe not needed?). Intel ME (Management Engine) should be installed. Renesas should be installed if you expect to use the USB 3.0 ports.
They should all be "safe" to install. I have no idea why your boot time would suddenly and drastically increase like that, other than the possibility that one of the WD Black drives fell out of the array and the Marvell controller/drivers took time to bring it back online.
You're thinking is all wrong. It's like buying an AMD graphics card and then being disappointed that you can't run your CUDA specific apps because AMD never mentioned it doesn't support CUDA.
Manufacturers will not say what a product does not include. Manufacturers will say what a product does include. WD never said the Black Edition drives were for RAID, but they do say their Raid Edition (currently called RE4) drives are for RAID.
RAID is not a backup.
If data is critical, you need daily backups. One easy way is to use a WHS box (can buy a pre-built one for $400 that supports up to 4x HDDs). RAID will not save you if you get a massive surge that breaks through your surge strip (a lightning strike can do it) and kills both your drives, or a faulty PSU that fries everything connected to it, or theft of your computer, or someone accidentally deleting files.
Samsung F3R. The "R" means RAID version that won't drop out of arrays, and the "F3" models are really fast. You can get 1TB Samsung F3R for $100 each at Newegg. Note that you will want these drives for both your RAID1 storage partition as well as your RAID0 video scratch disk.
Well, my car didn't come with instructions on how to perform routine maintenance, but I figure I would let the experts do it.
However, MSI was kind enough to include basic instructions in their manual. If you have lost your copy, download it here. If you still can't find the pertinent sections, then I don't know what to say since I'm reading your motherboard manual and it is all right there.
STEP 1 (pages 3-14 through 3-16 in manual)
Enable RAID mode for Intel controller in UEFI/BIOS. To do this, enter UEFI, go to "Advance" settings, enter "Integrated Peripherals" sub menu. Find "SATA Configuration" and set it to RAID.
**Note specific to Matt Stevens** If Windows was installed with it set to something else, then you may have to reinstall Windows or regedit it to prepare for the change BEFORE you do the change. It is preferable to have RAID enabled before Windows install, but with only your SSD hooked up.
STEP 2
Once RAID mode is enabled and Windows is installed (with all drivers) shut the machine off and hook up ALL the other drives you want to use to the Intel controller. The Intel Controller has only 6 ports so you can use your two drives in RAID1, two drives in RAID0, one optical drive and your Intel SSD. If your Intel SSD is a model 510 and not a model G2, you will want to put it on the Intel SATA 6G ports. You will also probably want to install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) software to help you view RAID array info in Windows.
STEP 3 ("Appendix B" in manual)
Create the two RAID arrays in the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM. Wow, try saying that 5 times fast! To do this, press CTRL+I during POST (there will probably be a 2 second window to do this) when you see the message in the screenshot on page B-2 in your manual (ignoring drive information for now). You can clearly see the "Press <CTRL-I> to enter Configuration Utility" message. Once you enter the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, you need to create your two RAID arrays. Option #1 is to create a RAID volume. Go into it, and select RAID1 as the RAID level. Then, select disks and choose two of your Samsung F3R disks by highlighting it using arrow keys and pressing the space bar. Once you have your two disks selected, press ENTER. I recommend leaving stripe size and capacity at defaults. Arrow down to "Create Volume" and press ENTER. Repeat these steps for your RAID0 array excepting of course selecting RAID0 as the RAID level. You are pretty much done at this point. Ignore the "Installing Drivers" section because you are not installing Windows on the array and have already installed the drivers at this point.
STEP 4 (optional)
I recommend while you are selecting the drives for your array to note down the serial numbers of the drives and which array they belong in. This makes it easier to troubleshoot or replace drives down the line.
STEP 5
Create partitions in Windows, and enjoy your new RAID arrays.
NOTE: Give the "Degraded RAID Array" section on page B-12 a quick glance over. That info may be of use in the future. Note that NOT using "RAID edition" HDDs will get you really familiar with degraded arrays. D:
Matt Stevens, if all that still doesn't make any sense to you, then STOP what you are doing and pay someone to do it for you. You've insisted that your data is of paramount importance to you. Why risk it?