> Which is what I've done when installing Linux. Am I losing performance? Power efficiency? Features?
From what I read a year ago before doing this, you don't lose much, and software-based RAID (if you go for that sort of thing) in GNU/Linux is just as efficient/reliable, and maybe more so. And anyway, if you only have one HDD/SSD, there is no point in RAID.
> It also makes dual booting trickier if you don't plan it beforehand.
I don't think so: installing Windows will work just the same with Intel's RAID turned off.
Apparently, Intel's RST is not just RAID, but it's also supposed to help when a laptop is equipped with two storage devices, one small and fast (SSD) and another big but slower (HDD): https://superuser.com/a/1578326
IIRC there were Dell XPS models like that in the lower price segment. Never tried one personally.
From what I read a year ago before doing this, you don't lose much, and software-based RAID (if you go for that sort of thing) in GNU/Linux is just as efficient/reliable, and maybe more so. And anyway, if you only have one HDD/SSD, there is no point in RAID.
> It also makes dual booting trickier if you don't plan it beforehand.
I don't think so: installing Windows will work just the same with Intel's RAID turned off.