Newby question for RAID0 and additional hdd

[TPECT]

Hi,
I'm trying to set up 3 HDDs that I've got for my first build. 2 of them Seagate 250GB and third one is from the same manufacturer but 500gb. Originaly I was thinking about setting up RAID0+1 but now I think it would be more logical to set up RAID0 with two 250gb seagates and connect third 500gb hdd as an additional drive and name it for instance G: .
Can you tell me if this possible, I'm getting my last badge of goodies tomorrow so will start building my PC right away, ohh and my MOBO is ASUS P5K-E wi-fi in case if some of you might have had any experience with it.
Thank you in advance.

[Lespaul20]

You going to see a lot of people tell you to skip RAID and just use all 3 drives. The performance gains in RAID 0 are negligible and you lose 250GB of storage while not have any redundancy.

[glc]

No, you only lose 250gb if you use RAID 1. 2 250's in RAID 0 is 500, but if one drive hiccups you lose everything.

You need 4 identical drives for RAID 0+1, and 4 250's in 1+0 is 500.

[Lespaul20]

Sorry for the misinformation.

[TPECT]

Thanks for info guys,
so it's pretty much doable to setup raid 0 with 2 250s and just hook up third hdd 500gb as an additional drive so I could select what to back up. Well from reading other posts it seems like gains aren't noticeable so I'll probably will go with separate 3 hdd's.

[glc]

I'd put one of those drives in an external housing for backups - backups are always more secure if they are not in the computer.

[David M]

In my own experience, RAID 0+1 is not infoulable...get the external drive.

[TPECT]

An update,
All went absolutely glitch free, mobo is a very of a high quality and the rest of hardware.
BIOS version was the current one so didnt have to flush it, now I'm not sure if I did it right but I set up all of my SATA devices as AHCI in bios saved it and installed Vista Ultimate without installing any of those intell matrix storage drivers. Installation was smooth and fast then rebooted went to bios again checked devices and they're indeed listed as AHCI so I guess everything is right? Or did I miss anyting...
Also most painfull process was case assembly it still flimzy and there are tons of wires that I need to hide. Thanks to all of you and this wonderfull site for being so informative, first build couldnt be easier

[glc]

AHCI is best.