RAID Setup for Epox EP-8K5A2+, Need Help!!

[Amputater]

Just want to ask the experts before I buy this board. Instead of connecting Hard Drives, can I just Connect CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD & etc. to the RAID Connectors? Becuase I have 4 Hard Drives and 4 Disc (CD-RW, DVD) Drives, so I was thinking maybe I can connect all 4 hard drives to the Primary and Secondary IDE's and then connect all my CD-RW & DVD Drives to the RAID connectors. Also if this type of setup does work, will it affect performance in anyway?

Linky to the Board Epox EP-8K5A2

Any comments would be helpful.

 

[Technonut]

With all of those drives you would be much better off with the 8K5A3+. It has 4 RAID ports, and 2 IDE ports. Newegg has the board for $128.00 shipped. You can only run hard drives (no CDROM or DVD) from the RAID ports regardless of which version used.

EDIT: It is best to have all of your drives set as Master on their own channel whenever possible.

 

[Creig]

I agree with Technonut. I have the 8K5A3+ installed in my Koolance PC2-C case with 4 hard drives and two disc drives, all set as Master on their own channel for the highest performance. If you got the 8K5A2+ you could connect all the drives as well, but the hard drives would each be sharing a channel with another hard drive instead of having one dedicated to itself.

 

[Amputater]

Thanks alot guys, now I'll go ahead and place my order.