SATA RAID Confusion and Optical Drive Confusion

[bbalegere]

I am planning to buy a new computer with the motherboard Asus P5B-VM
This motherboard according to Asus website has the following connectors
for storage

South Bridge
-4 x SATA 3.0GB/s ports JMicron JMB363 PATA and SATA Controller
-1x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 for up to 2 PATA Devices
-1 x Internal SATA 3.0Gb/s
-1 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port(SATA ont eh go)
-Support SATA RAID 0,1 and JBOD (by 1x External SATA & 1x Internal SATA)

If I buy 2 80GB SATA Seagate HDD(internal) can I do RAID Striping to boost performance?
If yes to which port should it be connect to.

According to the specification there 4 x SATA 3.0Gb/s ports JMicron Controller.
What is the difference between these 4 ports and the 1 x Internal SATA and 1 x External SATA?

Also to which ports are Optical Drives connected to?

I am planning to buy to DVD Writer with Light Scribe Technology.
Which brand and which is should I go for?

PLease help me.

Regards
BBalegere

[vish786]

i dont think their is much diff in external and internal sata port... external port is just making things easier... so their is no need to open the cabinet and connect 2 internal sata.

[janitha]

The DVD writer can be connected to the PATA, preferably as master. Or else try to buy a SATA DVD writer but it is not easily available, I think.
The "1 x External SATA" probably means an eSATA port for connection to compatible external devices.
For raid, why not connect them to the JMicron ports? Raid 0 should give some improvement in performance.