RAID & Hard Drives

[oillogger]

Some easy questions for the geeks.

1. Can you have 4 EIDE drives with just 2 on RAID 1 and the other 2 not in the RAID setup?

2. Can yo have 2 SATA drives running RAID 1 and 2 EIDE drives not in the RAID setup?

3. Does RAID 1 represents no speed gain in writing but reading is faster than the 2 hard drives by themselves by also double? Is this correct?

4. Is it worth getting two EIDE 8M RAM, 80G, 7200 RPM, 90MB/sec, drives for about $55 to set up a RAID 1 system when your low on cash? Got to love those rebates.

5. Is RAID 1 the best compromise for speed, cost, and security for a low end RAID system? If not then what and why?

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.