Lanparty DK 790FXB-M2RSH - RAID problems, and possible others :(

Copied and pasted from here:
http://csd.dficlub.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11623

Ok first off, my setup...
Motherboard: 790FXB-M2RSH
Processor: AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE
GPU(s): ATI Radeon 4830 in Crossfire
HDD: (primary) WD Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer Pc6400 800mhz 2x2gb
(storage) WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS x2
Optical: LG 22x supermulti DVDRW
Stock Dell 16x DVDRW
OS: Windows Vista 32-bit

Everything is running at stock clocks and voltages except for the GPUs which are running at 700/1100.

I bought the caviar blacks to have a raid 0 configuration of windows 7. I followed the instructions that I saw in another thread from before, and everything seemed to be ok until I got this error when choosing the 1900+ GB RAID 0 partition for my install path:

"Windows is unable to install to the selected location. Error 0x80300024."

Here were my settings for the RAID array:
Onchip sata channel - enabled
Raid Invoke - smallest first
Onchip sata type - raid
Combined mode - disabled
para channel mapping - primary

At this point I was loading my RAID x64 drivers from a floppy disk. After this failure, I reset my computer and it failed to POST, giving me the hex FF. I reset my CMOS and changed the configuration back from RAID to normal in the BIOS. I reformatted the WD drives and decided to load the RAID drivers onto a cd instead of a floppy.

This is where the real trouble began...
Something seemed wrong immediately, when it took nearly 2 minutes to go past the first splash image. It took another minute or so just to load the BIOS options, at which point I restored the motherboard to its previous defaults. It didn't make a difference though, because everything was still running extremely sluggish (~10 minutes to load up vista, before it was around 50 seconds). Even loading text in the BIOS takes a long time, about 5 characters per second.

While it was loading, I looked at the hex codes on the motherboard. The first showed 50, then 52, and finally 75. I unplugged all USB devices except for my keyboard and mouse, which had never caused any problems before. This didn't change anything though, so I am left to believe that there is a problem with the motherboard recognizing my SATA drives. I rearranged my SATA cables and made sure that the were connected properly. I have also tried having only the primary drive plugged in and that didn't change anything.

Still, though, everything was taking FOREVER to load, so obviously there is still a problem. Once in windows, I looked at my current settings in ATI overdrive and I now only have a single core shown as working on my processor (the other 2 aren't even listed ).......

On top of that, my GPUs are shown as only operating at 250mhz for their core clock in GPUz and I can't change that reading no matter what I set the frequency to.

Obviously something here is SERIOUSLY messed up, and I am very inclined to say it lies in the motherboard. I've tried re-seating the memory, changing which channel the DIMMS are in, and even trying different modules to no avail.

I am very discontented with this and some help would really be a show of good faith from DFI.

I realize that I am supposed to show my system specs in my signature and if someone would clarify how to do this I will be glad to.
Thanks,
Jeremy

EDIT: i didn't format the Vista OS drive, just the caviar blacks