8IRXP Question: Can Slave Drives Be Added to RAID as Standard IDE?

[MigraineManRedux]

Wanting to clarify this, since I have received mixed reports on this. I want to set up a RAID on my new GB 8IRXP motherboard using the two master IDE channels as required, but was wondering if I could attach some storage hard drives as slaves to those IDE ribbon cables. I've heard this is possible, but not recommended. I assume that if the storage drives are rarely used, impact on RAID performance would be marginal, no more than any master/slave hard drive configuration.

I've also read that if you implement the RAID, any slave drives on the RAID controller are not recognized by the OS. Hense, my confusion. I have three CD/DVD devices and four hard drives total I want to use. Is it even possible to have this many devices on this motherboard when using RAID?

 

[MigraineManRedux]

Well, after some more research, I've decided to keep just the two hard disks on the RAID controller in a striped config, and put three ATAPI drives and a storage hard drive onto IDE1 and 2.

If you still have any opinions on my original question, please feel free to post.

Thanks!