Hard drives

[Baz]

ooo  im going there now, thanks    

keep forgetting about Amazon for stuff like that

[Sebby]

Firewire is slower than USB on paper, faster in practice, Baz, depending on which version you get, it comes in 400, 800 and 1600Mbps variants. As it's based on SCSI, it's very efficient. I'm not sure whether you can buy adaptors for e-SATA, the ones I've seen have all been built into the mobo, but you can add an adaptor:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=676567

Just something to mention... When I ordered my WD external hard drive (USB 2.0, Firewire, and eSATA) I intended to use eSATA for obvious reasons, and had ordered an eSATA plate for my computer as well as the necessary cable. I just happened to be browsing the WD website when I saw that some of the features weren't available if using eSATA (the auto on/off and drive capacity indicator). I suspect that these are just limitations of the interface.

For me, that was enough to forget about eSATA altogether, but I still went with the more expensive WD model with the choice of connections in case I change my mind in the future.