Someone "PLEASE" help me with RAID "0" setup..

[Se7en01]

I think I have it setup correctly; however.....

I am new to this so I am not sure if I have it setup in order to get the most benefit and performance from it.

I have 2 120gig Maxtor SATA drivers on an Abit IS-7.

I did a cleane install of XP and used the F6 method to install drivers.

I set BIOS in Enhanced mode and my 2 Maxtor drives are stripped using 128.

I have them physically plugged into SATA 1 and 2.

I read in MaximumPC magazine that for best performance one should NOT use the RAID volume as the "Boot Drive." Therefore, I have an 80gig WD PATA drive on IDE #1 as my boot drive with XP residing on it. (Is this true?) Or should I use the RAID volume for booting with XP?

With the hardware I have (2 120gig SATAs and 1 80gig WD) what is the best way to set up my system for best performance?

I really don't need the extra storage space so I don't care if I have to get rid of the 80gig WD if using the RAID volume for booting is better.

If anyone is familiar with the IS-7 BIOS and RAID setup, I would really appreciate some guidance on setting it up with the hardware I have.

I also read somewhere that if using an "Audigy2" you should install the IAA RAID drivers "After" the sound drivers. Is this true?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[aka1nas]

I'd reccomend using the 80GB drive as your boot but moving the swapfile onto the RAID array. Also I would, as a precaution, make sure that the Audigy isn't in the PCI slot that shares the IRQ of the onboard RAID(Usually PCI #3).