RAID-? (Need advice)

Okay guys, I have a single 250GB SATA150 WD and kind of want to start a RAID. I know these aren't the fastest drives (load times on UT2k4, Myst V Demo, and Stepmania are sort of slow), and I've got a little cash (not a LOT, so only stuff less than 10k RPM) to throw around, so I need some advice.

Terms: Great CPU/Gfx card/RAM, and I'm looking for a setup that'll be efficient for large games. Also, I have a bunch (~100GB) of movies/music/warez that I would really like to keep secure in case of a crash.

Options:
- Get 2x 250GB and do a RAID-5. ($230)
- Get 2x 250GB and do a RAID-4. ($230)
- Get 2x 160GB and do a RAID-0 for just games and boot (really fast?), and keep existing 250GB for storage. (Maybe RAID-1 later) ($170)
- More good options?

Thanks to anyone that can help.

P.S. Anyone heard of/used Hitachi Deskstar drives? They're relatively fast and cheap, (good for raid) but not very durable. Truth?

No idea on Hitachi but I personally go for Segate and Samsung and make sure they're always warm to the touch or cooler.  Heat = bad for all brands.

If you're using XP/2K/2K3 server edition, you can do software RAID.  It'll definitely incur CPU cost but unless you spend some pretty money a good RAID card, there's reliability issues on the RAID controller itself.  Motherboard RAIDs are pretty notorious for suddenly not working, as are the cheaper RAID cards.  And because it's done in hardware, you might not be able to just take a HD from the RAID and plug it in else were.

Don't recommend the plain RAID-0 striping unless you really don't mind risking everything on it.  And if that's the case, you can get away with two, much smaller drive at cheaper prices.  Don't you need at least three drives to do the higher RAIDs?

>>1
YOU CANT RAID5 WITH 2 DRIVES

>>3
Would the software RAID degrade performace a lot (If I were to do the RAID-0 option)? I'm on a AMD64 4400, so it's not like I really need _all_ of that power. Hehe. Oh, and yeah, I already have a drive for the higher RAIDs; I would need 2 more. (Why the prices are so high.)

>>4
P.S. I ALREADY HAVE ONE SATA 250 THANX FOR READING AND CONTRIBUTING HELPFUL INFO. ;D

>>4 is right you can only do 5 with a minimum of 3. You are not doing anything critical and you need spare drives laying around if one fails in 5. Plus 5 means if more than one fail you are still screwed. 1 is the same way your mirror drive can fail. All you sound like you want is the extra speed/storage so just go with software raid if possible. >>3 as he mentioned cpu penalty but the *hardware* raid on every motherboard today are just software drivers that offload to the cpu anyways. You aren't doing anything critical so splurging for one of the good cards probably wont make a difference here. Just take the penalty, but you can't boot up from software raid 5 in windows. 5 is where the big penalties are at, 0 hardly any.

Truth bomb - raid 5 & 1 do not mean your data is safe. The rules of backup still apply, minimum 2 medium types, rotating backups, and at least one off site backup. Every drive you add to a array increases the chances of total failure.

>>5
No, the software penalty is honestly quite meagre on today's machines.

RAID 50 BITCH

TWO STRIPED RAID5's FTW!  Max out that gigE network with ease.