I'm planning on building a new system in April and would like some feedback please. I am planning on building with a Gigi GA-MA790GPT-UD3H and 2 Samsung F1 RAID Class 500GB drives. I plan on leaving the SATA Controller in the BIOS at the default of Native IDE and using Ubuntu amd64 Alternate Install from and ISO burn and following the instructions https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SoftwareRAID to set up a Software RAID 1 Array.
Does anyone have prior experience with this type of Linux RAID Array type?
I'm trying to stay away from 'fake-raid' on the mobo and really hate to get a cheap controller card if this will work out OK. Is this a stable Array with Linux?
Parts listed via the Egg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16813128398
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822152117

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Ga-990XA-UD3, Phenom II 970 BLK @3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 1600 G.Skill Sniper, WD 1.5 TB Black, ATI FirPro V4800 running on Kubuntu 64-bit

From what I've tested, it's better if you use the on-board controller. Just enable SATA mode there (not IDE), get the latest proper drivers, create your RAID from the controller and then install the OS. Also, the F1 is not my any standards a RAID class drive. The only desktop drives fitting into RAID category are the WD RE (Raid Edition) series because they are the only ones with special RAID functions support and maybe the black edition series that also have the same specs as the RE drives but have the RAID functions disabled.

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World's best Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge mod and Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3 mod: Overmind.ro

Thank You for your reply Overmind; I've been doing a lot of research trying to prepaire for my build. The problem is that the Gigabyte manual as well as the AMD Catalyst instructions state that "Installation of the OS is required prior to updating/installing Drivers"; that is of course a paraphrase; these are the quotes: From Gigabyte mobo manual > Chapter 3 Drivers Installation
. Before installing the drivers, first install the operating system.

and from AMD > Minimum System Requirements

Before attempting to install the ATI Proprietary Linux driver, the following software
must be installed:
XOrg 6.8, 6.9, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 or 7.4
Linux kernel 2.6 or above
glibc version 2.2 or 2.3
POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm) support is required for 3D applications
2
ATI CatalystTM Linux Installer Note
System Recommendations
For best performance and ease of use, ATI recommends the following:
Kernel module build environment
o Kernel source code include either the Kernel Source or Kernel Headers packages
The RPM utility should be installed and configured correctly on your system, if you
intend to install via RPM packages
The following packages must be installed in order for the CatalystTM Linux driver to
install and work properly:
XFree86-Mesa-libGL libstdc++ libgcc XFree86-libs fontconfig freetype zlib gcc

I have contacted Gigabyte and of course have received some broken English instructions that are: >> Dear customer,
Linux same as Windows, need to enable SATA controller in bios to Raid and create Raid 1 array when system boots on second screen press Ctrl + F1 two keys in AMD Raid bios config, then when loading Linux need provide driver. please log on AMD web side look for SB 750v SATA driver for Linux support or log on Linux web look for the correct driver.( We are sorry since Linux was open source OS Gigabyte not provide Linux driver support ).
I think you can see my confusion; I think they mean to Q-Flash the drivers into the firmware but that kind of contradicts the above info. about requirements.
I would appreciate your help, or anyone else that can help. I am doing the research and planning now in hopes of avoiding 'frantic' request during the actual 'Build' of my new system.

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Ga-990XA-UD3, Phenom II 970 BLK @3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 1600 G.Skill Sniper, WD 1.5 TB Black, ATI FirPro V4800 running on Kubuntu 64-bit

OK, thought I would report back with the solution even though it came from a couple other Forums.
The solution is to leave the BIOS settings of the SATA Cantroller of the GA-MA790GPT-UD3H at 'default' which is Native IDE and install with the Alt. CD building a Software RAID 1 via mdadm and making both drives bootable via GRUB. This makes the drives 'cold' swappable if needed.
Instructions for this can be found at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SoftwareRAID

Have a nice Day

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Ga-990XA-UD3, Phenom II 970 BLK @3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 1600 G.Skill Sniper, WD 1.5 TB Black, ATI FirPro V4800 running on Kubuntu 64-bit