The Final Coutdown. Need help lots of help with RAID and OC'ing

[Soylent Joe]

My C2D E8400, HIS HD 4870, and second WD Black 640GB hard drive will be arriving at my doorstep sometime tomorrow. At that time, I will install the HDD, put all the junk on the mobo, mount the mobo, connect up all mah cables (already have psu cable management done) and hopefully post. I think I know everything I need to know except on a few topics. RAID, my OS, and overclocking.

RAID 0 Config
I'll be putting the two 640GB drives into a RAID 0 configuration. I have a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P which has the Intel P45 and ICH10R bridges and is RAID 0/1/5/10 compatible. If I understand correctly, for anything older than Vista, you have to have the RAID drivers on a floppy disk, and with Vista and Win7 you can use a flash drive.
-Where could I find these drivers? (link?)
-How do I go about setting up the drives and how/when do I insert the drivers?
-Will the drivers need to be in a certain format so the setup process can use them?
Also, if I use Win7 as my main OS and get them from a flash drive, and want to put XP on a separate partition, then will I again have to go through the trouble of acquiring a floppy drive?

Overclocking
I know there are TONS of help sites and tuts all about OC'ing your CPU and whatever. My question is, could I just take the info (modified FSB speed, multiplier, voltage, etc.) from someone else who has components like mine and use those values without any trial and error? So like, if JohhnyQ has an E8400, 4870, and stuff like my stuff, and has a stable OC at 3.5GHz, could I just take the values that Johnny is using and use them for mine? I know, since the stuff I have is probably different than anyone else's, that the voltage may be different or something, but I don't know.


Operating System
I was planning on getting the latest RC of Win7 and burning it to a disk using PowerISO, and making a 40GB or so partiton for XP.

 

[Disparia]

It's even easier than that - Vista/Win7 already has ICH drivers, so the array will be recognised during installation. Then afterwards you can install the Matrix Storage Manager from here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101

As for Windows XP, I use nLite to integrate drivers into the install CD (I haven't had a floppy in over 9 years).

 

[Homeless]

For windows XP, you can get the drivers from the intel web site. Vista / win7 has the drivers already. During setup, windows XP asks you to press a button if you have sata/raid drivers. That's when you insert your floppy or whatever to get them

 

[Soylent Joe]

Bump for glory. The stuff should be here any minute.

 

[silkstone]

some overclocking settings for you. try 1.3v and 450fsb, move up from there

 

[Binge]

My C2D E8400, HIS HD 4870, and second WD Black 640GB hard drive will be arriving at my doorstep sometime tomorrow. At that time, I will install the HDD, put all the junk on the mobo, mount the mobo, connect up all mah cables (already have psu cable management done) and hopefully post. I think I know everything I need to know except on a few topics. RAID, my OS, and overclocking.

Broad span of topics... two of the three aren't hard to find info on.

RAID 0 Config
I'll be putting the two 640GB drives into a RAID 0 configuration. I have a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P which has the Intel P45 and ICH10R bridges and is RAID 0/1/5/10 compatible. If I understand correctly, for anything older than Vista, you have to have the RAID drivers on a floppy disk, and with Vista and Win7 you can use a flash drive.
-Where could I find these drivers? (link?)
-How do I go about setting up the drives and how/when do I insert the drivers?
-Will the drivers need to be in a certain format so the setup process can use them?
Also, if I use Win7 as my main OS and get them from a flash drive, and want to put XP on a separate partition, then will I again have to go through the trouble of acquiring a floppy drive?

Does your UD3P's manual say anything about setting up RAID? All of your raid drivers will be available on the install CD or from Gig's website.

Overclocking
I know there are TONS of help sites and tuts all about OC'ing your CPU and whatever. My question is, could I just take the info (modified FSB speed, multiplier, voltage, etc.) from someone else who has components like mine and use those values without any trial and error? So like, if JohhnyQ has an E8400, 4870, and stuff like my stuff, and has a stable OC at 3.5GHz, could I just take the values that Johnny is using and use them for mine? I know, since the stuff I have is probably different than anyone else's, that the voltage may be different or something, but I don't know.

No no no no NO NO NO NO... NO!!!! There are tons of help sites and tutorials about overclocking cpus or whatever and NONE of them even hint that your components will behave the same as JohhnyQ. I suggest you start reading these "tons" of reputible guides before you come back with a bios corruption, HDD failure, component failure, or something similar.

Operating System
I was planning on getting the latest RC of Win7 and burning it to a disk using PowerISO, and making a 40GB or so partiton for XP.

Is this a question or statement? I know every time I boot into W7 I remember how much I want to break my old vista disks. Why would you foul up a perfectly HDD with old crap? Compatability? Are you tryin to run 4870s and a 8800 for physX? PhysX cards are really cheap and would save you the hassle.

Don't hesitate to ask more questions