I'm planning to get a new computer soon, and I'm trying to figure out a technical term that I've never seen. It's called RAID - Redundant Array of Independent Disks - and it apparently boosts the speed at which data is retrieved. (The theory makes logical sense to me from reading the description, even though I would have expected any impact to be negligible.)

Normally I wouldn't be so puzzled, but I'm considering the Gateway P-172X FX... I'm just a little confused as to why the price is the same for perfectly identical specs whether or not you go with the supposedly superior RAID version.

Is there something I'm missing here? Is RAID an untested system, is it known to weaken system stability, or is there something else? Could it just be the added risk of losing all your data if a single drive fails, rather than just half of it? Or am I simply reading way too much into a good deal?

If anyone has some experience or outside knowledge of RAID, I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks in advance.