RAID on ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE

[rouble]

Hi All,

I have been thinking of getting the ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE to build a
RAID system. I have a few questions for the asus mobo gurus ...

How many SATA drives can be connected to this mobo ?

For my desired configuration I need 2 pairs of SATA drives in RAID 1
(so a total of 4 drives). I also want two more SATA drives, not in any
RAID, for weekly and hourly backups. Will that be possible on this mobo
?

Also, has anyone connected any hot swappable SATA hard drive cages on
this machine ? If so, please let me know what brands.

One more thing, has anyone successfully installed debian sarge on SATA
drives using this mobo ? I know in the past there have been issues
installing linux on harddrives over SATA.

TIA,
rouble

 

[zzipper]

If you want to connect that many drives you'll have to get an extra
controller for the last two. You can only connect 4 SATA drives, 2 on ICH5R
and 2 on Promise controller. If you want a better system for this type of
setup, go NF4 with an Athlon64. You can connect 8 drives on most NForce4
boards. Unfortunately you'll have to buy an SLI board if you want this setup
from Asus, other mfg's have it on their standard NF4 boards.