Let me preface this by saying that I have never setup a RAID array myself, other than by using software RAID 0 in Windows for a set of storage drives.
I purchased a new ASUS Maximus VII Hero motherboard, two SSDs, and 3 HDDs. I planned on running the two SSDs in RAID 0 and the 3 HDDs in RAID 5, as the board has two controllers: One with 6 ports (on the intel chipset) and one with 2 ports, on an ASMedia chipset. The intel chipset supports all the standard RAID modes, but I later found out (or at least it seems to be the case) that the ASMedia one doesn't support RAID. Short of buying a PCI-E SATA card that supports RAID 0, can I set up these two arrays on the 6 port supported by the intel chipset, and boot off the SSDs?
Best Answer
According to this admittedly rather old document on Intel's site (as well as this and this) you should be able to create a RAID 5 and a RAID 0 in those steps. Intel Matrix RAID used to be a separate technology featured in several southbridge chips, but from what I have researched, is now a part of Intel's Rapid Storage Technology. While the document recommends using a RAID that's actually redundant for your OS, I don't see any physical limitations from doing so.
To summarize: Setup your RAID 0 first, install the OS and the RST drivers and then setup the RAID 5.