I have purchased 2 identical internal HDDs for data storage, with the intention of setting them up in a RAID 1 array. These would be strictly only for data storage as I already have an SSD boot disk in place, with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installed. As this OS does not support a software RAID 1 configuration, I'm looking to set up a true hardware RAID array for these HDDs. My question is - does the ASRock FM2A85X Extreme 4 motherboard (or, I guess, specifically the A85X southbridge chipset it uses) have an embedded RAID controller with a dedicated RISC chip that would allow me to set up a totally "OS-blind" RAID 1 configuration? Or do I need to buy a discrete RAID controller card? If so, what make/model would you recommend?
The current configuration is:
- ASRock FM2A85X Extreme 4 motherboard
- AMD A8-5600K APU with Radeon HD 7560D GPU
- 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600MHz RAM
- Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB SSD as boot disk, with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium installed
The two HDDs I would like to set up in a hardware RAID 1 array are identical Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm internal SATA drives.
The current configuration is:
- ASRock FM2A85X Extreme 4 motherboard
- AMD A8-5600K APU with Radeon HD 7560D GPU
- 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600MHz RAM
- Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB SSD as boot disk, with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium installed
The two HDDs I would like to set up in a hardware RAID 1 array are identical Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm internal SATA drives.
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