If you want performance with little overhead cost pick up the integrated raid controller with your board, but if you have money and want real speed pick up a hardware raid controller. There is a difference in performance between integrated raid/software raid and true hardware raid. Raid controller cards which are software raid cards usually cost about 50-$100 but true hardware raid runs >$200 but there is a large difference, read the article about RAID in the articles section here or just search around for some performance differences.