RAID 1 or 5?

[bLiTzJoN]

I recently built a media tank (monitor as TV in bedroom) and use a 360 as an extender [for the living room]. Well, started ripping all my DVDs and I filled my mirrored set already and looking to purchase a drive or two. I currently have (2) raptors striped RAID 0 for the OS, and (2) WD blacks 1tb mirrored. Since I have (2) optical drives I will need to purchase a controller card since I've filled all my SATA ports (GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H mobo). What would you suggest I do?

Here's the options I've been pondering.

1) Purchase a controller card to run the optical drives and drop (2) more WD blacks 1tb as another mirrored set using onboard controller and have 2tb total.

2) Purchase a controller card that supports RAID 5, purchase (2) more WD blacks and use (3) of them in a RAID 5 because I will need to keep one of the original mirrored drives as temp storage while I build the array for 2tb total (then keep the extra drive as a spare). Unless, I find a friend or local pc shop that will allow me to borrow a drive for the transfer then I could have 3tb total.

 

[Ockie]

Wait. Why do you use raid 0 and two optical drives on a server? Why not just ditch one drive and ditch both optical drives?

 

[bLiTzJoN]

I use the tank as a virtual development platform running vmware workstation. I seldom use my desktop anymore, so I repurposed the (2) 36gig raptors and the 22" monitor from it and purchased the following:

AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX810WFGIBOX - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
(2) CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5 - Retail
LG Black 6X Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive SATA Model GGW-H20L - OEM
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model GH22LS30 - OEM
(2) Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM
AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe MCE ATSC/NTSC/QAM Tuner Card w/MCE Remote & L-P Bracket 7 95522 96066 5 PCI-Express x1 Interface - Retail
Logitech diNovo Edge 2-Tone USB Bluetooth Wireless Mini Keyboard - Retail

I was gonna use a single optical drive at first; however, I'm very glad I didn't. Some movies I've ran into wouldn't rip in one of the drives but would in the other. And, if you have ever ripped 100+ DVDs having many optical drives helps A LOT.. I even thought of getting my external optical enclosure out and replacing the drive to have a 3rd drive till I get them all ripped.

I also debated on retiring the raptors since they are dated and go with their younger brethren, but I was on a fairly tight budget for this upgrade ($1200 is all I had to spend) and I didn't want the OS installed on the same drives as the precious data.

 

[extide]

1) Purchase a controller card to run the optical drives and drop (2) more WD blacks 1tb as another mirrored set using onboard controller and have 2tb total.

This. Consumer level raid 5 sucks, don't even bother with it. Keep it simple, and run two mirror sets and then if anything ever happens in the future you will have a very easy recovery process.