[TheGregster76]

What is the best 1TB hard drive to get for a RAID set-up?

I have four 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black (WD1001FALS) hard drives and I am having issues with these drives in RAID 0+1. These drives keep getting errors on them and degrading the RAID array. Part of the problem is that I am using the onboard RAID on my motherboard (ASUS Rampage II Extreme). Yeah, I know I should have done more research on these hard drives to see if you can actually put these hard drives in RAID. Western Digital recommends the RE3 version of these drives for RAID. The only thing is that I do not have the money for 4 of these drives.

What are the cheapest RAID 1TB capable hard drives you recommend with similar performance to the Western Digital Caviar Blacks?

Also, do you recommend a RAID controller card over the motherboard RAID? And are there any 4-port RAID controller cards out there that will fit the top PCI-e x1 slot on my motherboard without removing any cooling fins on the chipset cooler?

Please help me. I am getting quite frustrated with my computer. I just want to get back to using it and having it just work.