1st Raid Card Install, Need jump Start...

Hi Folks, My System config will be listed below

I have ran on board RAID and need advise or pointers to get me goin
with the Areca-1200 and two WD RE3 750GB hard drives

My humble skill level

I built my vista 64bit system myself from the ground up. A very nic
smooth experience. Scary smooth

I had used RAID 1 for backing up photos experimenting with both of th
on-board raid controllers, Gigabyte's and Intel's. I have since move
the drives to an external eSATA two drive box by XTRASTORE
I have not ran a booting OS RAID setup

So now I want to go from running my OS on a single WD 750GB Green HD
to the RE3 drives in Raid-1 in case one dies I can keep going until th
parts are replaced or fixed. I'm hoping the trouble of using
controller card will be rewarded in the freeing up of resources th
on-board would put on my CPU. The external eSATA setup will remain

I will want to pull my current WD Green 750GB drive, install the RE3'
with the Areca-1200 and reload a fresh Vista HP 64bit OS starting as
new system. Fun Huh

So I am hoping you guys can give me a jump start the manual will not
Perhaps things in my motherboard BIOS I would need to change like a fas
boot option and such
Or tips and tricks
I want to go from my single drive system to a RAID 1 setup doing a ne
Vista Home Premium install and a fresh software installs
My application other than a home PC is running Adobe's PhotoShop CS
and Canon's Digital Photo Professional

Anything you can prepare me for will be great, Thank

--
theroc

*=================
'Rookie Photographer' (http://alcphoto.net)
=================*
PHOTOSHOP CS3 RI

- Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R
- Intel Q6600 G0
- 610W CORSAIR PSU
- POWERCOLOR AX3650 512M DDR2
- 8GB CORSAIR MEM
- 1XWD 750GB HDD
- 2X WD 750GB RE2 RAID-1
- VISTA X64 SP1