Drive partitioning for SSD cache

Question

i just purchased a new laptop Asus N551JK-CN103D which comes with a 1TB hdd and 24GB SSD(or mSSD) which I think can be used as cache. I have a couple of questions but here is how I setup my laptop, it initially came with FreeDOS.

1. When doing a fresh install of Windows 8 I noticed there were 2 x Unallocated Space, one for the 1TB drive and one for de 24GB SSD
2. I formated the 1TB drive into the following -> Two primary partitions ( 1 for windows and programs, 1 for personal stuff), and it automatically created some smal partitions for Recovery,System, and MRS or something like that (can't remember), which I left untouched as they are important i gathered.
3. I also created a second drive from the SSD . So in the end I hate Drive 1 (5 partitions, 2x primary,recovery,mrs,system) and Drive 2 (2 partitions, MRS and primary of 22.2GB)
4. Installed Windows 8 on one partition from the 1TB hdd.
5. Updated windows 8.
6. Updated to windows 8.1
7. Installed drivers.
8. Now i wanted to install intel RST to use the SSD for cache for the 1TB but I do not have the correct options. From my understanding I need to set SATA configuration to RAID. As i gathered it is a bit tricky after installing the OS, need to edit some registers. I went to BIOS out of curiosity and under SATA configuration I only had AHCI(selected) and IDE, no RAID. Why is it so ?

Tomorrow I am going to return the laptop as it has light bleeding (DOA policy), and will exchange it with another same model.

Can you please guide me on how to correctly set up my computer ? It will also come with FreeDOS , and I will install a new copy of Windows 8. I want to be able to use the SSD as cache for the 1TB drive, or can I use it for something else ? Here is how I now think i should do it.

1. Enter BIOS before uninstalling FreeDOS and change SATA mode to RAID. (But what if the option is not available again ?). I will asume it is in the next steps.
2. Boot from windows 8 CD and do a clean install.
3. Partition the drives the same as before ( ok or not ?. should I leave the 22.4GB of SSD unallocated ?)
4. Update windows 8 so i can update to windwos 8.1 from store.
5. Update to windows 8.1.

Untill now I only had systems with a simple HDD on them, and I am not very sure how to best setup the system to use both the 1TB and 24GB SSD, any help is much appreciated. Thank you

PS: Here is a SS for RST as it currently appears:

Image can be found here: http://cdn.overclock.net/3/33/900x900px-LL-33202ee5_asd.jpeg

Answer 1

N551JK does NOT support IRST. You should use ExpressCache software, which you can download from the Asus website.

First - you have to clean SSD via DISKPART: (in elevated command prompt (run as administrator))

DISKPART      
list disk   
select disk [number of the ssd]  
clean  
exit

After this also in command prompt, you have to go in the directory of expresscache

cd "c:\program files\Condusiv Technology\expresscache" (or something similar)

and type

ECCmd -partition  
ECCmd -format  
ECCmd -info

The version of ExpressCache must be higher than 9 (10 or bigger)