RAID 0 or separate hard-drives for my sample libraries?

[Uber Mega]

Hi everyone, I hope this hasn't been asked previously, i've scoured the web but haven't been able to find an answer

I'm about to purchase a Mac Pro (current standard spec w/ 8gb ram upgrade) for my semi-professional music rig, I will be mainly using three heavy sample libraries (East West Symphonic Orchestra Plat XP, Symphonic Choirs and Stormdrum) in Logic.

Forgetting the 750gig main drive in bay 1 that I will be using for stuff like apps, photos, movies, music etc. I am planning on dedicating the three spare drive bays to hard-drives for my samples. I've been looking into RAID 0 (I don't really need to worry about backup with my samples as I have the discs) and have become confused (it was only a matter of time)...so here goes:

Would it be faster and more efficient to:
a) run all three of the sample hard-drives in RAID 0, and just shove all my sample libraries on it?
...or...
b) Give each individual sample library it's own harddrive i.e. Symphonic Orchestra on drive 2, Symphonic Choir on drive 3, and Stormdrum on drive 4?

I obviously need to read multiple sample libraries very quickly, but which will be quicker? I'll be using SATA by the way, I can't afford the SAS card and drives.

Thanks so much in advance,

Thom

 

[PowerBookG4]

A software RAID will not provide you any performance increases that a hardware RAID would. I would put the samples on different drives, however, if one drive powers down because it is not being used it will slow down the whole computer while you wait for it to power back up.

 

[Uber Mega]

Thanks. I'll be putting 4 of my own harddrives in the bays in that case (probably velociraptors). System on one, samples on the other three.

Cheers, Thom.