Part of the reason is that Windows 7 doesn't recognize the on-board raid. The whole time I had it, it was listed as "unknown device" yet the logical drives were still readable. But I suspected the whole time that I might not have been getting the performance I should have. And I couldn't find drivers that worked properly.

ASUS Revolution Motherboard (Don't remember which exactly).

Can you recommend a good physically-inserted RAID card that's Win 7 compatible and SATA II? I might consider getting it. Pop it in to a PCIE-X slot, plug the drives and go to town! Yee haaa!