Help on a few components for PC

[ellspeedy]

I have a few questions about what certain parts mean on the config.

1) What is the difference between ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX and
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL***? And what does the ***special*** mean?
Is the first motherboard good for a gaming PC with GTX570, i7 2600.

2) What exactly is RAID? and is it needed if i were to get an 120gb SSD and a 750GB HDD?

These are the final few things i am working on to finish my PC build so as allways any help is much appreciated

 

[Rakk]

2) What exactly is RAID? and is it needed if i were to get an 120gb SSD and a 750GB HDD?

RAIDed hard drive are generally used for one of two things:
RAID 0 - which speeds up the hard drive, cos it uses both instead of just one when doing stuff, though if one of the drives fails, you're screwed, cos they depend on each other, and if one goes, you pretty much lose the data on both
RAID 1 - this mirrors one drive directly onto the second, so if one drive fails, you have a perfect backup, but this does lose you the space of the second hard drive
There are a few other RAID configs, RAID5 and RAID10 but I haven't really looked into them and generally wouldn't be used on a home PC anyway afaik

RAIDing requires both drives to be the same size and spec.

You do not need to RAID if you have two hard drives, you can if they are the same size/specs but only if required for the reasons mentioned above, which I'm suspecting you wouldn't need anyway, and given your two drives are different to each other you couldn't do anyway.

 

[ellspeedy]

Ah ok thanks Rakk, that clears things up

Just waiting question 1 now. And then the order will be soon placed!

 

[keynes]

Ah ok thanks Rakk, that clears things up

Just waiting question 1 now. And then the order will be soon placed!

The special bit is reduced price. I believe for_the_buzz replied number 1, difference is in audio. I'll go with the standard one.

 

[ellspeedy]

Oh wow, i actually forgot that i posted that question AND had it answered earlier!
Sorry for basically double posting!

Well it seems pretty much every thing sorted i think! although im sure il somehow think of another question before i purchase though