[gentoo-user] {OT} SSD instead of RAID1?

[Grant]

I have two local systems that need to be reliable and also have a
large storage capacity.  The thing is, the data storage doesn't need
to be reliable, I just need the systems to keep running.  The data on
the systems is backed up and losing it wouldn't be the end of the
world because of the backups.  However, I really need each of the
systems to keep running.

I've read that an SSD drive should be much more reliable than an HD
drive.  What if I bought a low-price/low-capacity SSD drive for each
of these systems, installed the system essentials on them, and used my
existing high-capacity HD drives for data storage?  Would each system
keep running if the HDs died?  If so, I think that would offer as good
or better system reliability than RAID1.  What do you think?

- Grant