Does anyone here use software RAID on Linux?
sounddust: Can you afford a 3Ware card- even a used one?   Nothing compares to a solid hardware RAID solution, in terms of quality, reliability, and performance.   I suffered the failure of several RAID-5 software arrays in linux about 5 years ago (despite the failure of only one disk) and decided that it wasn't worth the trouble.   I switched to 3Ware and have never had a problem since, despite numerous disk failures and replacements.