Hello all,

Been quite a while since I've been to these forums, but I was looking for some advice. For years I've been using the build as listed in my sig (for the most part; I added RAM, put bigger HD's in and replaced a failing video card).

So after watching for quite some time, I finally took the leap and ordered the following on NewEgg:

Case: AZZA Solano 1000
PSU: Antec TPQ-850 850W
CPU: Intel Core i7-860 (LGA 1156)
Mobo: ASUS P7P55D EVO (with ASUS Model PCIE GEN2 SATA6G Expansion Card)
Heatsink / Fan: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
Memory: G.SKILL ECO 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
Video card: HIS H577FM1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB
Monitor: SAMSUNG ToC T240HD Rose-Black 24"
Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 24X SATA
Hard Drives: 2 x OCZ Vertex Turbo OCZSSD2-1VTXT30G (and SilverStone SDP08 3.5" to 2 x 2.5" Bay Converter)
2 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM

Going to go with on-board sound, or possibly move my Audigy 2 Platinum into this machine, so I didn't order a new sound card.

Now, my questions are about my hard drives. My plan is to install the two SSD's in a RAID 0 (striped) setup and install Windows as well as my programs to that "drive". I've read some about tweaking Windows settings, flashing firmware, but not a lot of it addresses a clean install or SSD RAID. I have never used Windows 7 and I've been running a motherboard coming up on 8 years old, so I'm not up to speed on new BIOS settings. What adjustments / tweaks will I want to make to get this going correctly from the get-go? Also, how can I flash my firmware before installing Windows? (I'm still running XP, which would want me to have a SATA driver had I not slipstreamed one in).

Also, the 2 TB hard drives, I was planning on running them mirrored and using them for data. I've never run SATA 1. Anything to watch out for? Is it overkill?

Have a few days before the parts arrive but I was hoping for feedback so I could get this box running as smoothly as possible. Your help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Sean