If you want two internal drives with RAID, then disconnect the external
connector on the motherboard... or did I miss something?
You should use the Intel connected SATA for RAID as 1st option due to the
controller not being on the PCI bus ==> better performance.
No, this is a crazy setup - the chip in question is dual port, with
one ordinary SATA connector on the motherboard, and one ESATA connector
permanently mounted in the I/O area. To use it, you would need an
external enclosure for one drive, while the other drive could live
inside the machine. That is, if you wanted a RAID array. I suppose
you could route an ESATA cable back inside the computer, and use
two internal drives. The intent is probably to give the user a single
ESATA port on the back of the computer, for doing backups and the
like.
If you look on the Newegg web site, there are add-in PCI cards that
offer one external ESATA port and one internal normal SATA port. So
this crazy concept is not unique. I cannot see anyone building a
RAID array that way (unless the intent is for a RAID 1 mirror, where
you plug the ESATA drive, synchronize, and unplug it again, giving
a painless backup ?).
Paul
