I'll be picking up a new Mac Pro (dual quad 2.8, 8GB ram) in the coming days, complete with the Apple RAID card. I'm currently having a few problems deciding on storage solutions, that I hope someone here can help me with.

My first dilemma is trying to decide between a RAID 1+0/0+1 and a 5. My main focus is speed, so I'd love to use a RAID 0, but I do need some short term security, aside from regular backups.

My second problem is trying to find the best possible SATA drive. I don't mind spending a little extra cash, but I want to be getting the fastest possible drive I can. I saw a few options, including the Samsung F1, WD 640GB Caviar, and a few others. I have no idea which would perform better then others, let alone in a RAID situation.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Raid 5 is quick at the loss of one hard drive for redundancy. Highly recommended.

Also, 150GB raptors are very nice if the speed is worth the cost. Since I assume you have looked at this already, you may want to check out TomsHardware's drive benchmarks for more details.