another question. noticed on newegg.com theres some external housings for internal HD's, some with firewire. Would those be just as good as a stand alone external drive? you could probably pick up one of these cases and an internal drive for much much cheaper than a stand alone external. and with firewire, shouldn't be any different. I may look into this for an external, too bad my dell couldn't hold 3 HDs.......

External firewire drives whether selfbuilt via an external case (IDE or sata to firewire ) or ready built should work with Studio. The HD itself should be 7200rpm ( most are now anyway) have a good amt of ext cache ( 1-8m) the more the better. You need to look carefully at the cost savings. The ready built ones seem to be more reliable and consistent . I have used both an "ice box" external case with 250 g hd (IDE to USB2 )and a maxtor 250g . They both work well
The USB 2 protocol is faster than firewire (1) and as a transfer interface should not be dismissed casually as it is fast enougn for video capture, rendering and access for editing

one more question, noticed on newegg.com that they have firewire a & b as options. whats the difference and how would I determine what my pci card is? thanx

fire wire a (400Mbps) is theoretically slightly slower than usb2(480Mbps) . in truth they are practically identical. firewire b (800Mbps) is the new generation firewire : I have not yet personally seen anything that uses it but it is backwards compatible
If it is not loudly written all over your card it is probably ( the more than sufficient) firewire a
Mbps =megabits per second 400Mbps is roughly equal to 50 Megabytes per second much faster than scsci of old and certainly more than adequate for video work as we know it.
http://www.glyphtech.com/site/technology_firewire.html
Seroiusly they are many factors which affect the transfer of data . faster processors, differing archtecture of processor and mother board chipsets, many of which we may have little control over. If it is fragmented even an ultrafast HD in a super duper PC will be slow as a dog
Unlesss you use older kit you are more than likely to get great acceptable results

And don't I recall reading - perhaps here on the forum - that Firewire even at its current specification is still recommended for video transfer because, although Firewire and USB 2.0 nominally have the same speed, Firewire is more capable of sustaining the speed over a period of time - a requirement for video capture? I may have misremembered...

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The biggest fool can ask questions that the wisest man cannot answer...

i have a 2.8 P4 (800mhz FSB) dell that I bought last may. need to check the firewire card I bought (from wally world) before I open it. I'm all bout speed. dunno what exactly I have planned to use the external HD for. either vid editing or what my current 2nd HD is being used for, which is storage and to put games and such on.

" I have not yet personally seen anything that uses it (fire wire b) but it is backwards compatible "
If it is not loudly written all over your card it is probably ( the more than sufficient) firewire a...........

Unless you use older kit ( which it seems you clearly do not) you are more than likely to get great acceptable results [/quote]

Your need for speed does not require you to have firewire b. It is available but not mainstream enough for you to feel you are missing out WHATEVER your current need
If you are really must get on an (extra) internal hd you could step backwards and buy an extra ide pci interface card ( not really recommended) f)