Question : Problem: Need advice from a RAID Expert

Hi. I am building a new PC and am coming accross the options for my hard drives. I was to put in two Serial ATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration. I need a couple of questions answered.
If I use that setup, will it recognize it as one drive or two? Will it just be like one big C: drive?
I am going to go with this motherboard http://usa.asus.com/products/server/srv-mb/pc-dl/overview.hTm will I need to buy a RAID PCI card or is it all taken care of by the motherboard?
I have read about the risks involved with a raid 0 setup, losing one disk loses everything. My question is, is it possible to have three hard drives, the first two in a raid 0 configuration and the third to have a complete backup of everything automatically written to it everytime there is something written to the first two?

Thanks for the help
John

Answer : Problem: Need advice from a RAID Expert

> will it recognize it as one drive or two?
It will be recognized as one big drive, but you can partition it the way you want.

>will I need to buy a RAID PCI
The motherboard you've chosen supports RAID, so you don't have to buy an extra RAID controller

> the first two in a raid 0 configuration and the third to have a complete backup of everything automatically
No, this is not possible, Raid 5 does that, but the onboard RAID-controller on the motherboard you've chosen doesn't support that. It does support RAID 10, wich is striping+mirroring, you'll need 4 drives for this. You than have 2 pairs of 2 drives in striping mode, wich are mirrored.

LucF