To RAID or not to RAID

[Saxon]

I was just wondering when I get my rig up and running whether or not to configure my HDs for RAID?

I'll be using 2 Raptor x 150Gig Drives.

A couple of points I'll make are:

1. I'll be playing games
2. I'll be using Cinema 4D 10 / Photoshop CS2 etc a lot
3. I have encrypted partitions for work

I plan on sticking with my current format of C: (windows only partition) D: (Programs only Partition) E: All my .Zip and .Rar archives for installation and F: will be the encrypted partiton for work.

Raptor Disk 1 will have C: and D: on it
Raptor Disk 2 will have E: and F:

Now will RAID be worth it, or will my performance be fine as normal?

Also, what is the difference between Raid 0 / 1 / 5 etc as I can do either.

Cheers!

 

[Saxon]

Cheers for that, I'm assuming it will still be fast with my non-RAID setup with the 2 Raptors in?

I was only thinking about RAID as it seems everyone is using it nowadays.

Maybe I could get 3 drives, use RAID 0 on the first 2 (windows and programs) and use the third disc as a separate for my backups etc. But if there's not going to be that much of a noticeable speed increase I think I'll just leave it.

 

[Saxon]

My current setup is one disk split into 3 partitions (C, D, E) with an external backup drive.

I have C for Windows only which has about 3 gig spare at all times (seeing as windows grows in size with junk) - The reason I have windows separate is for defrag purposes (doesn't take as long to just defrag Windows if thats all that is needed). If Windows fails, I just format C and reinstall.

D has my programs on. Again I can just defrag this partition if I've installed a large game etc. If windows fails, I leave D alone and then simply reinstall my programs over their original folders. This is basically so I don't have to set up my preferences on some of them again.

E has all my zip and rar files to install programs from (no cd's needed etc), as well as my encrypted passwords and saved files such as photoshop files etc.

My external drive has a backup of E.