Software raid system for backup AND gaming (desktop on Windows)

[dimyself]

Ok, so I want to build a NAS with raid for backup of photos and other data using 2 1TB drives. My question is which raid solution will work best? I think I've narrowed it down to some form of software raid on a Windows system. I was going to use Linux but I want to be able to use this system for gaming as well....so Windows it is.

I want to be able to backup DATA (photos, music, data, etc) AND backup the OS. As well, if possible, I would like to speed up gaming drive read/writes....

What hardware am I looking at for this? I was thinking a decent mobo/cpu combo from Fry's with SATA TB drives and a good video card. Would this be sufficient? What else is needed?

What kind of raid would I need for this and are there any specific hardware requirements that would work best for this (other than good vid card and 1000mb/sec nic)?

Thanks!

 

[Snipergod87]

Why have you decided on a software RAID? Hardware raid performs better.

 

[dimyself]

Isnt it quite a bit cheaper unless I use the mobo onboard raid (which supposedly doesnt work very well)? Plus I was reading that software raid isnt behind or isnt that far behind hardware raid with proc speeds now?

 

[dimyself]

bump

 

[dimyself]

bump

 

[broadbandaddict]

Hope it isn't too late. I don't ever use a motherboards built on RAID, too many bad experiences. If you want to run RAID 1 on two 1TB hard drives (I think that's what you meant) then you can easily do it from Windows disk management. Are you installing Windows to another drive or the new RAID array?