Best RAID for HTPC?

[ServerKing]

I am confused about raid settings I understand the stripped and mirror concept. The pc I will be using has 3 500gb hard drives. Which is the best raid option to use? And if I use Raid 1 (mirrored) does this mean I loose 500gb because of a mirrored backup? I know this is a stupid question but this is my first time doing raid and wanted to figure out the best one to do with some sort of redunecy for the 3 drives. Thanks.

 

[iroc409]

3 drives you can use RAID5 - you lose 1 drive to redundancy regardless of the array size. RAID1 makes an exact copy of the drive, so you need multiples of two (with the capacity of a single drive per set).

4 500GB HDD RAID5 = 1.5 terabyte (roughly)
4 500GB HDD RAID1 = 1 terabyte

 

[tuskenraider]

Yes you lose the drive space on the RAID1 "backup". Why do you think you need RAID for a HTPC?