short
Go for the windows option.
long:
Opinions may vary on this since everybody has his or hers own preference and there is not a single clear cut answer.
However if you do not need to boot from the array then you do not need IRST. Leaving that out means that -in case of hardware defect- you use other motherboards without IRST. Even if only for the goal of recovering the data.
This means that I have slight preference for the normal windows solution.
Just make sure to select the right RAID level for your disks. Which level that is depends on your goals (which are not stated in the original post).
Do you have raid controller ? I know in my dell RXXX the raid controller controls raid structure. i can edit the setting using their windows tool or with bios menu, but not through the disk management. using disk management you can control the volumes.. thats my case ā ilansch ā 2013-02-01T09:37:11.743