changed:
-disks are cheap and RAID 5 kills performance. You want to let those
-heads move independently of each other and seek all over the
-disk. When you use RAID 5 you slave all of the heads together. When
disks are cheap and RAID 5 kills performance.

Consider joining the Battle Against Any Raid Five:
http://www.miracleas.com/BAARF/

Or at least read the anti-RAID 5 papers and essays they link to.

You don't want to pay the small-write penalty. You don't want to lose 80% of your performance during a rebuild.
You don't want to risk blowing up your whole array and losing all of your data when you accidentally try to replace the wrong disk.

You want to let those heads move independently of each other and seek all over the
disk.  When you use RAID 5 you slave all of the heads together. When

changed:
-kills your access times. Instead of RAID 5 just use mirrored
-pairs. This is better performing AND safer. If you are using a
kills your access times.

Instead of RAID 5 just use RAID 1 or even better, RAID 10. Linux has an awesome RAID10 implementation. The Linux RAID10 mode is not simply RAID 1+0. Read up on it. You will want to use the far method or the offset method, the near method doesn't provide a speed-up with a two-disk array which you can do with the Linux RAID10.

This is better performing AND safer than RAID 5. If you are using a

changed:
-Or perhaps better than mirroring, consider using Linux's RAID 10 support. Linux RAID 10 is not simply RAID 1+0.
-
-http://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/01093607424
-
-You will want to use the far method or the offset method, the near method doesn't provide a speed-up with a two-disk array