Raid question when connecting storage drive

[Blakexeal]

Hello, I'm still really new to building pcs and I've had mine together for over two months now. I bought an additional hard drive to go with the SSD. I noticed on the motherboard instruction manual that it says certain sata ports do not offer raid functions. My main question is how does this affect me using a storage drive? Right now my SSD is my boot drive. I mainly want my SSD to handle the OS and other heavily used programs where as I'll only be using the HDD for installing various steam games/videos/ and other junk files.

Motherboard ftp://174.142.97.10/manual/Z77%20Extreme4.pdf
HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697
SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

Motherboard manual: ftp://174.142.97.10/manual/Z77%20Extreme4.pdf
Motherboard manual states:
Please be noted that SATA3_A0 and SATA3_A1 do not support RAID function.
If you want to use RAID function on SATA3 connectors, please use
SATA3_0 and SATA3_1 connectors.

These are the ports my SSD and HDD are currently connected to
Sata3_A1: SSD
Sata3_1: HDD

Side note: Also the metal clips on the end of the sata cables make it impossible to attach two ports with two connectors being stacked.

Apologies if this sounds like a newbie question. I just don't know much about raid configurations with the ports or how to properly setup upon after installing an additional drive. Thanks for taking the time to read this and provide any help if you can.

 

[GhislainG]

Since you don't use or need RAID, you shouldn't have to worry about it. It's up to you, but why did you connect the SSD to the ASMedia controller instead of the Intel controller? I'd use Sata3_1 for the SSD.

 

[Dereck47]

SATA ports can have 3 settings (modes): IDE, AHCI, & RAID.

A RAID array is when you are connecting 2 or more physical drives to create 1 logical drive (C: drive for instance).

You are not doing that in your situation so you don’t have to worry about which SATA ports support RAID mode.

SSDs need to be in AHCI mode for best performance.

Your SSD should be connected to one of the Intel 6Gb/s ports (SATA3_0 or SATA3_1) for best performance.

 

[Blakexeal]

Since you don't use or need RAID, you shouldn't have to worry about it. It's up to you, but why did you connect the SSD to the ASMedia controller instead of the Intel controller? I'd use Sata3_1 for the SSD.

Alright I connected the SSD to sata3_1. Does it even matter where the HDD is hooked up to or will Sata3_A1 work?

What's the difference between connecting the SSD to the ASMedia controller instead of intel anyways? For future reference =)

Ty for the feedback btw.

 

[GhislainG]

The Intel ports are faster. It doesn't really matter for the much slower hard disk, but you could also connect it to another Intel port.

 

[Blakexeal]

Best answer selected by Blakexeal.