If you have important data, a RAID1 set up is better than doing regular backups manually.
A RAID1 set up is a mirror set up. Thus, both hard drives will have IDENTICAL content. If one fails, the other one will take over... you'll get a message that the array is broken, but you will still have ALL your data. With back ups you will loose the data you have not backed up yet in case of disk failure.
Also, with a RAID1 array, when a disk fails, it's fairly simple to replace the broken disk. The computer will automatically reconstruct the RAID1 array, and thus you will have data security again.
RAID1 definately is the way to go for data security.
I checked on the Epox board in your system specs, and it does support RAID1. Thus, you can get two SATA hard drives, and build a RAID1 array.
However, in either case, I'd still do back ups to DVD
You never know if some catastrophic events might take out both drives.