The saga continues Mac Pro setup

Question

Sorry to start yet another one my first time here.After much reading and research, among reading over 50 pages here in this forum alone I would like some guidance on setting up my new Mac Pro (2008) dual quad core 2.8Ghz bad boy.
I just purchased 4 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM from Newegg here -> http://tinyurl.com/6jmpbr Because these seem to be suggested for use many times throughout this and other forums. I hope these are the correct ones? They were also a great buy however, I am somewhat fearful of Newegg’s shipping strategy (lack of proper packing and UPS tends to toss shipments around like a pro-wrestler). In addition, I would have also like to have got them from different sources as not from the same batch but hey the price was too good to miss out on and I did not feel like waiting.
Now for the best approach, or approaches, to setting them up for best usage and optimal performance. 2 sets striped and mirrored Raid 10 I think it is ( preferably with a small boot partition for just the OS say 100gb)
or
1 drive for the OS and move users, and applications to a striped and mirrored Raid. I have read most of the links provided here and in other forums but I am still not sure the best route to go. Also most of the information is somewhat not as thorough as I would like.
(Background or helpful information as to my needs)
I do a small amount of lightroom and aperture toying around but not a lot. I do encode video some mostly for just personal use movies, some final cut studio occasionally, and I do have (but not used yet) logic studio (for one of my son’s to use). My biggest no no’s or issues that I would have would be in playing games like COD4 or moving large amounts of data on and off the machine which would frag out my system. I think? Most of the work that I would be doing would not push the system very much and I feel I have enough memory and space that I will need. Except for a backup this is where my next problem lies. In reading I hear advice to use superduper, carboncloner, to backup and re-image back to the system. From what I am hearing this is to defrag, while backing up the system. I have used both of these products but have recently started using clonetool would like feedback on it as well.
In addition to the hard drives , just after getting my unit I purchased 16gig of “supposedly” matched pairs from MacGeeks (Ebay store) at a reasonable price I believe -> http://tinyurl.com/6fgmq6 They all seem to work fine and haven’t noticed any problems and since they had such good feedback I decided to chance getting my ram from someone other the “the blood-suckers” AKA Apple. I really did not need a Mac Pro like some do I just wanted one so that I could have a great machine that would last hopefully for many years of worry free service and not have the burning desire to get a better unit. I feel this will fulfill my desires and needs for many years to come if I get the proper advice on setting my unit up the first time. I would love as much instruction and insight on the approaches Mac users have to helping a noob set his up. I can’t believe this all started this year in July with the purchase of a Mac book 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo laptop. That first taste was all that it has taken. In September this year I purchased a Dell mini 9 netbook and turned in into a very fast (but not a powerhouse) couch and coffee shop machine running leopard 10.5.5 even faster for the basics (boot up, surfing) than my real Mac book. I would love to get the full experience and pleasure out of my Mac Pro. I very much appreciate all the help and tips from the people in the Mac community.

Answer 1

Thanks The hatter for the input, I decided to test it by taking a drive out it would boot with three drives so that was a success. However, upon replacing the pulled drive back into the raid FAIL.
So a do over was then implemented.
This time I chose to do it with 2 sets mirrored and then stiped the two sets. Viola I tested pulling the drive and booting (ok) then re-inserted the drive back into the raid and booted then repaired the degrading raid and I'm good so at least if I have a drive failure happen before I get my backup strategy setup (more money for external backup) I should be good.
One note I most certainly understand this is not a route most people would take but it is pretty fast now and that pleases me.
Also at the beginning of this episode
I first tried to setup a boot (OS X only) drive and move users and apps to other drives and symlinking but that seemed to be even more difficult than setting up the raid. I think that is the preferred setup route but I don't have the skills to get r done <a little Larry the cable-guy humor.
Thanks and if you guys have any tips or suggestions please help a noob out. I appreciate all you guys for the help with this seemingly difficult setup.