Figured I'd post this, as some folks have had some trouble finding out how to do this. Turns out, you can actually mix devices on the SB750. I've seen lots of reviewers (you know, those sage wise men who know everything) slam the disk handling of the SB750. The vendors suck because their documentation...wait a minute, there isn't any.
Here's what I found on the Asus board at least.
I successfully mixed a single disk (WD Raptor 80G) and a 3 disk RAID 5 array (3x80G seagates) in the same system. I've been able to install both as separate devices. And it appears that all is well, and the whole thing is actually quite convenient
When you set the disk controller type in the main BIOS to RAID, it enables the logical controller in the SB750. Whats confusing, is that if you only have 1 RAID array defined, then the only entry in the "physical disk" category in the BIOS under boot settings are for that array. It also takes away the traditional BIOS main screen display of all your installed disks. Turns out, they move into the RAID option ROM.
I had created the RAID 5 array first, and got that up as a bootable device. But I was able to plug in the raptor, and now!!! lo and behold!! the RAID ROM sees it as a seperate, standalone drive. Not only that...but the MAIN BIOS sees it as a seperated standalone device also, its called something like "RAID Drive Standalone Drive" in the HD list.
I was then able to install Vista onto the standalone drive, while preserving the RAID 5 array.
So now, I've got standalone and RAID volumes. It looks like the RAID option ROM takes over ALL disk control when you set it to RAID, but it synchronizes itself with the regular ROM nicely. You will have to install the RAID/AHCI driver even to use the standalone disk, which is one of the things that confused everyone.
So in the end, you end up working with 2 pieces of firmware (BIOS) to make this work, the primary BIOS for the motherboard, and the RAID option ROM for the SB750. But it all makes sense (which is really amazing)
Windows Disk Management snap-in simply shows both as physical volumes (logical actually) and Device Manager shows them as 2 separate disks, the RAID array and the standalone disk. This is very clever
Hope this helps!!! I was sure impressed!
Now this is a different configuration than what Gigabyte did in their 790GX/SB750 board and even the 780G boards with the SB700. They allow you to assign SATA ports 0-3 to RAID, and 4/5 separately as IDE/SATA. I had thought this was convenient, but now Asus approach here is even more flexible, as you can use any ports for anything.
I hope this explanation makes sense!
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