Best RAID Level for…?

Hi,

I’m thinking on getting a Dell PowerEdge 2900 for a Database server that I’m planning on implement at my work place. This would be my first challenge as Sr. Support Specialist, but I still have some doubts “how to or what would be the best way to configure the server”. It’ll have 3 500GB SATA HDDs (on a Windows Server 2003 or Fedora C5) and I want to have the primary HD to be mirrored or somehow the other drives get the same info simultaneously. So in case of a failure, the secondary HD can take place while I install the primary. Could someone guide me to a better step? What RAID level would be the best? Do you think that RAID 5 is a good option for this case?

Thank you all!!

Tekigirl83