Ray, do plan on a backup of some form. If your collection is like mine, it will start with CDs but then grow with FLAC downloads from band sites, online downloads of various sources (HDtracks, etc.), and "other acquisitions". While it may be possible to rebuild from scratch, it's worth the cost of another drive just to save you the hassle. 1000 CDs will take you quite a while to rip.
Plus, you'll find yourself spending quite a bit of time editing your database. Disc tracks (especially double CDs) will not always number right and sometimes your software will mesh up two discs. Gracenote will recognize almost all of your CDs but some of my "local artist/coffee shop" Cds had to be hand entered. You really don't want to re-do all of this work.
Oh, and album art is another item that doesn't always get setup right automatically. You will find yourself doing a lot of work updating that part of the database. Many albums have several versions of artwork. These can be for re-released, re-mastered, or other countries. The automatic may not use the album art that you want to associate with the album. You can fix this by hand but it takes time.
Wow, just realized I'm sounding negative about this project. Here's the positive: Ripping is worth all the time and energy you will put into it. Just make a good backup and save yourself from repeating all that hard work.
I back up my whole collection quite often. At least once a week and after any additions are made. I use "Goodsync" and back up to a drive on the network. This way the source and backup are at least in different rooms. Ideally, I'd have another copy "offsite" but I haven't worked that out yet.
