The boot volume state is DEGRADED

[Magnus33]

Thanks ill look into this when i get home

I would loose a sata port if i used a SSD. The usb drives im using have 130MB read and write so arent slow, regardless i dont think fast drives are needed as i see no performance increase other than faster boot time since i replaced my 10MB r/w drives with the 130MB w/r drives.

No problem.

Speed really depends on the motherboard itself and how fast it can read the usb .
In terms of reliability though a ssd is much less of a headache but if the usb is work for you then stick with it.