Installing and Configuring Asus Z87-WS

[Justme2]

Hi all,
After wasting a huge amount of time on the ASUS support chat, I am coming here with some questions and/or to confirm some of what I was told.

I am building a software development system with both internal and external drives (external via a couple of Sans Digital towers). I am currently planning to use the on-board video to power 2 or 3 monitors (at least 2 to start). I also do video editing-hence the need for lots of disks, but am not into gaming

1) My 500W PS has 2 connectors besides the 24 pin, 1 8pin, 1 4 pin. I am planning to use the 8 pin in the EATX12V and the 4 pin in the EATX12V1 slot (according to p2-7, this is OK). Do you see any problem with this?

2) The manual isn't quite clear. I assume I can have 10 Sata drives via the 6 Intel and 4 Marvell ports as well as 1 mSata drive (besides what might be connected via eSata.) Is this correct? Or do I lose one if I use the mSata?

3) Given 2 Sata controllers, any recommendations on which I use for Sata drives, SSD, and/or CD/DVDs?

4) Does anyone know if I can use the SATA RAID software in the BIOS to implement RAID in the disks in the external towers? The chat person said no, but I thought I would check.

5) While developing code, I often run VMWare virtual machines for testing and/or other purposes. I think I should enable the virtualization settings, but not sure if it makes sense to do so if I am also using the computer for development. Any comment?

6) It's not clear which settings are ideal for enabling virtualization. I am guessing "Intel Virtualization Technology" and "VT-d", any others?

7) If I am using multiple monitors via the MB, do I need to turn on iGPU (the manual isn't clear.)

Thanks!

Fletcher

 

[Justme2]

Ok, I got some answers:

1) I should use the single 8 pin connect (which provides power to the CPU). The 2nd is redundant and is generally only needed if I overclock. And I would only use a 4 pin option if I had 0 8 pin options, but I should avoid it if possible. So my 4 pin will just not be used.

2) You can have an mSata drive in addition to the 10 sata drives. But it appears that a standard SSD as a boot drive might be a better option and then use the mSata as a cache.

3) The System will boot faster on the intel Sata ports.

4) Nope - gotta get the software from SansDigital to configure the external disk array.

5) Yes, the VM settings should be set on to use any VM options efficiently.

6) Those seem to be it.

7) The iGPU should default to enabled if no video cards are added and disabled if they are. So not an issue.