Raid 0, raid 0+1, or raid 5?

Question

I am going to build a gaming pc. It's going to b a pretty good one in the $2000-$3000 range. I dont feel like putting the specs up so here is my question. Should I use raid 0, raid 0+1 or raid 5? The hard drives I will use for the raids are "Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive" I will be using the computer for of course gaming and some large important file storage. I have never had any real problems in the past with hard drives. Should I just go the cheaper way and buy 2 hard drives for raid 0? Or to make sure my data is never lost 4 hard drives for raid 0+1? Or have 3 hard drives for raid 5? I want to go for raid 0 but am worried about data loss in the future. I am not sure what to go for.

Answer 1

Split the difference: set up your PC for speed and make regular and frequent backups to an external drive. RAID doesn't protect you against viruses, software errors, or theft.