RAID a cheap feature to add, so most modern motherboards have that capability, but don't feel like you need to use it.
SATA is just like IDE, only the cable is easier to route
Don't do anything different than you'd do with IDE. Once the drive is installed, go into BIOS and enable it. One problem you *may* run into is that the legacy IDE port is sometimes either/or with one of the SATA pairs, in that you have to disable the IDE to use the opposite SATA ports (or vice versa). If this is the case, you can either try another SATA port or get a converter to plug your IDE drive into a SATA port for about $15; I had to do this with my last motherboard.
SATA is faster than IDE, but the drives themselves aren't any faster, so you'd probably never notice the speed difference.
