Im very close to the hardware ordering stage for my HTPC and have a couple of HDD questions.
I figure I may as well go for 1TB HDDs as less drives = less noise/heat, etc. not to mention the price has been coming down nicely lately. Was thinking of just getting 1 to start with but then I though perhaps I should get 2 and do a RAID 1 or 5 for better security (nothing as frustrating as losing the only HDD in your build).
What are you guys doing for this? I will certainly eventually want more than 1TB in storage as I plan to rip lots of DVDS and do lots of recording as well as having games, etc on there so will eventually be adding.
So... should I RAID or not?
Other question was, which 1TB to go for. Id rather not pay top dollar (duh) unless its really justified. I looked at the GP WD drives but the 5400rpm thing bothers me as I will be doing some gaming (not sure how they do at simultaneuous HD recording/playback, etc either). Also looked at the spinpoints from Samsung but have read iffy things about reliability...
Hmmmmm.
So, in short:
1) Just use 1TB drive(s) normally or RAID?
2) Which drives (make/model) would you guys recommend?
Cheers in advance!

(IF I sound like a n00b, its because I've never done a RAID array before...)