I think that E520 will only do Raid1, no mention of Raid 0 in the owners manual.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dimE520/en/OM_en/NH730A01.pdf

 

You will need an add in pci controller card to do Raid 0.

Is there a PCI controller that you would recommend?

This is the one I am currently using

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816102060

 

I did change the default stripe size to 128 from the default 64, very happy with the performance, rock solid. It is a little clunky to set up the raid pack, but after that it is sweet. You will need a floppy drive installed on the motherboard, usb will not work, to load the promise driver for XP to see the raid pack and install.

I guess my other option is to change the configuration from Raid 1 to non raid (and have two separate hard drives). Is this possible?

I have never done this but suspect it is possible, since both drives are identical, but I do not know for sure what happens when you break a Raid 1 pack. Maybe others will post, if not start a new thread with this question.

There is a way to use the Raid 0 with this computer.  You need to setup the raid array in another computer first.

 

  Put both hard drives in another computer, Set bothdisks to RIAD 0.

 

  Remove them from the other computer and put them into the E520

 

  Turn the RAID function in the bios to RAID ONLY

 

   It will reconize it as "RAID 0 ????"  But it works fine and is noticed as raid 0 with the Intel Matrix tools.

 

 

  Just a little work around for this limitation.  The Raid controller is a standard Intel controller, I don't know why Dell has disabled it.

In XP yes

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/using_windowsxp_to_make_raid_5_happen/

Doubt it, since this hack is software based, and not as reliable as hardware based Raid.

 

I personally not use this method myself for raid 5, anything goes wrong, and you cannot get into windows, you have no way to recover.