Drew wrote:
On the subject of hard disk, I'm probably going to buy another disk for ripping the content. I can go SATA II internal but I'm a little worried about heat since my home is not air conditioned, would an external FireWire drive be a good option or am I better really better off going internal SATA II?
I'd stick with the SATA II.
Heat wise, either option will have the same issues. My first place had no air conditioning, in a town that averaged 35C in the summer, and I never has issues with drives. I know that drives don't like the higher temps but if you're in a 35C climate like I was, it didn't matter if the drive was external or internal as long as they have a fan blowing air across them.
Speed wise the internal SATA will be your best bet. Theoretical performances aside (400Mbps vs 3Gbps), the SATA will outperform the FireWire. FireWire & USB2 are great for archiving but for any sort of transfering, transcoding, etc you should stick with SATA.
The other thing you get with SATA is 'smart' monitoring. The firewire (or USB) interface doesn't support it even when the drives do.