Based on this I've recently installed software RAID1 on two 80GB disks on a Fedora Core 3 test 3 server. While I don't have any actual performance statistics, the array seems just as fast as I'd expect it to be, and the RAID1 process has 0 seconds CPU usage in over four days, including several software installs. That and the idea that there's much more chance of getting the RAID array working if we have to change hardware underneath it sold me.

Thanks for the idea, genixia!

Paul