Andyf

GOdaddy and 1&1 are worst host. I would like to point at my UK based host : www.webhosting.uk.com reliable and honest host with 24x7 live chat, email and Phone support, WHM/cPanel/plesk, PHP 4.X-5.X, MySQL, MSSQL, unlimited domains, emails etc

Choosing Raid type will depend on your requirements and your budget, if you want performance raid 0 is your option but it does not deliver fault tolerance. If one drive fails then all data in the array is lost. so raid 1 is solution for it as it gives you redundancy(mirroring) RAID 1 mirrors data on 2 identical drives which allows you to swap drives in case of failure of one drive. There are few more typed of Raid such as Raid 5, Raid 10 which are more advance type of Raid format and are more costly. More ref : webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html

Video conversion requires loads of server recourses I will suggest you to go with Quad core processor rather then dual core also try to get unmetered bandwidth with a reliable host who is available round the clock for your support. If possible try to opt for load balance servers if you are getting huge traffic. I would like to ref you my host for dedicated server , www.webhosting.uk.com for more details.

Do ref : acm.uiuc.edu/webmonkeys/book/c_guide/ for more on C programming it's very useful source for all about C language.