Hard drive solutions?

I'm just pondering over my drive options at the moment. I currently have
the following setup:

Internal
300GB Barracuda with my main OSX and User stuff.
160Gb original OE drive with my Backup data on it and my temporary EyeTV
recordings.

External
160GB Barracuda in a FW/USB enclosure, currently used as my Aperture
'Vault' and TTP 'eDrive'.

I'd like a complete OSX booting backup though, along with just my user
data (not bothered about the applications).

I'd really like a pair of matching internal drives so I can run a
mirrored RAID, and then use a pair of externals, one with my Aperture
Vault on it, the other as an EyeTV recording drive and second backup for
my User data.

However, I can't seem to find a 300GB SATA unit anymore, they have
jumped to 320GB, and ISTR there is some problem with using an SATA drive

Jaimie Vandenbergh...

Get two (pref from different mfrs), and move the 300Gb outside the
Mac. Use the 320's as the mirror.

wildrover.andy...

That was my thought too. Why different mfrs though? I'm quite happy with
Barracudas.

in an external enclosure.

Jaimie Vandenbergh...

No problems, except finding an external box which takes SATA - much
easier for 3.5" drives than 2.5" ones.

wildrover.andy...

Yes, that does seem to be an issue. I could of course just sell the
drive I have and get an ATA unit. Or even just sell the whole lot and
get a humungous external drive, or even a RAID box.

There are just so many options I suppose there's no really perfect
solution.

Cheers - Jaimie

I do currently have plenty of spare disk space, but I do, on occasion,
work with large video files, and my photos can take up a bit of space
while I'm working on them, so having some good free space is handy.

I could of course consider an internal Striped RAID and using all my
other drives in external enlosures for my backups.