New build,

[Kragen2179]

Hi peep, looking for a bit of advice. Am about to build a new machine for my best friend. The parts have been ordered, and are as follows...

1 x Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 motherboard
1 x Intel Core i7 2600 3.4Ghz CPU
1 x Corsair CMX16GX3M2B1333C9 Dominator 16GB (4 X 4GB) XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 RAM
1 x Gigabyte GV-N56GOC-1GI GeForce GTX 560 830MHz 1GB DDR5 PCI-Express HDMI
1 x LG BH10LS30.AUAR10 Electronics 10x BD-RW SATA Lightscribe Internal Drive
1 x Corsair CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 120GB Force GT SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive - Boot drive and installed programs
2 x Seagate ST31000524AS 1TB Barracuda SATA-600 7200RPM 32MB - Set up in RAID 1 Mirrored Set for document storage.

Now I'm not new to building computers, but this will be my first time setting up an SSD, as well as my first RAID configuration. I am also new to the Lucid Virtu technology so I have a few questions.

The operating system to be installed is Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

I have read a few articles on installing Win 7 with SSD, and all seem to say thatI should install the OS with only the SSD installed to begin with.

Now I don't know if its possible, when setting up Win7, to set the documents path during the install, but obviously if I have only the SSD plugged in I couldn't do that. So question 1

Can I plug it all together, and install Windows on to the SSD whilst specifying the RAID array for My Documents?

Question 2

If I can't specify My Documents path during install, or I absolutely must install with the RAID array unplugged, can I then permanently change the My Documents path in the registry so that any program automatically opens My Documents to the RAID array?

Question 3

On the board mentioned above, which ports would you install the drives to?
there are a total of 4 SATA III 6GB/s ports (2 are on a Marvel controller) obviously the RAID drives would have to be on paired ports, but do I put the SSD on Marvell, or RAID. Also would you put the BD drive on the spare SATA III port?

Question 4
There is mention of an mSATA port on the board, used in conjunction with Intel Smart Response, mostly I know these are used with small capacity SSD, would there be any point installing the 120GB SSD here or on the SATA III ports?

Question 5

Lucid Virtu sounds interesting, but is it easy to set up, does it required switching your monitor between onboard/PCIE graphics cards or is it done internally.

I did try downloading the manual for the board off of the website but it was a dissapointingly small 3 pages with no info that helped.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

Firstly I don't know what you downloaded but it obviously wasn't the manual. You can get that here and hopefully it will answer a lot of your questions there(I have assumed it is the iSSD version from what you said about the onboard drive):

For the GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3896&dl=1#manual

If it is not this version try this instead as this is for the GA-Z68XP-UD3 :

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3892&dl=1#manual

Q1: It is safer to have only the SSD connected but if you think you can manage it there is no reason not to have the RAID connected as well.

Q2: There is no reason not to specify it during installation but it can just as easilly be changed afterwards. You only need to change the location of the folder.

Q3: SSD on port SATA3_0, RAID on SATA3_2 and SATA3_3. The optical drive you can put anywhere you like as it is a modern version and should run just as happilly under AHCI as IDE mode. Make sure that the hard drives are running under AHCI mode.

Q4: The iSSD is really just used as a fast cache so not really feasible to use your main drive.

Q5: It should switch from the desktop I believe although I am as new to it as you are. Check the manual.

[Kragen2179]

Hi, thank you for responding so quickly, I'm sorry my reply has taken so long, but I went camping for the weekend. Lol.

Anyway, the link you sent is the same place I went to download the manual, however I missed that there were two documents to download, :facepalm: so now I have all the docs I need.

Thank-you also for your answers. I will be using the standard Z68XP-UD3, not the iSSD version. But was curious about the mSATA port. From what you've said, and from what the manuals say, I shall stick to the SATA III connectors for the SSD.

If anyone has any more info on how to use the onboard graphics in conjunction with an NVIDIA card that would be great.

[Dark Mantis]

Glad I was able to help and that at least now you have all the files you need.

[Kragen2179]

Hi, well still hunting for more info on Lucid Virtu, I did find this report by bit-tech from May http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/05/13/what-is-the-intel-z68-chipset/3 which seems to suggest that virtu is at best incomplete,

[Dark Mantis]

Well I would tend to agree as it is still very new and although it has been talked about for a long time I think there are still plenty of wrinkles to iron out yet. It is a very good idea and in the future will go a long way I reckon. It even allows the running of two different makes of GPUs (AMD and Nvidia)on the same board in one incarnation which is the Holy Grail of graphics.

[Kragen2179]

Back to the SATA connectors,

@Dark Mantis you said SATA 3_0 for SSD and SATA 3_2, and SATA 3_3 for RAID.

on the GA-Z68XP-UD3, the SATA ports are laid out as follows...

 _________    _________   _________        _________
| SATA 2_5 | | SATA 2_3 | | SATA 3_1 |     | SATA 3_7 |
| SATA 2_4 | | SATA 2_2 | | SATA 3_0 |     | SATA 3_6 |
 =======   =======   =======       =======

am I correct in assuming that in this case, SATA 3_2 and SATA 3_3 are in fact SATA 3_6 and SATA 3_7?

[Dark Mantis]

Yes my mistake in so much as I didn't have the manual in front of me and was doing it from memory.