External HDD for Media Center, USB 2.0 vs. Firewire 800

[Blazer5913]

hello all, quick question. I am looking to get a new external HDD to house my movies and tv shows for my MBP media center. I currently have a Western Digital 1TB drive that is absolutely huge with an even bigger fan (its so loud all the time). Well, its basically full (plenty of HD material) so I need more space and looking into a Western Digital 2TB External Drive. I can find a desktop one, which only has USB 2.0, for 89.99 shipped on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-External-WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN/dp/B002QEBMCI). But this other model has a Firewire 800 port as well (http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-FireWire-External-WDBAAJ0020HSL-NESN/dp/B002RL8J12) but it is 189.99. Now, with my current setup, although the fan is decently loud, the USB 2.0 connection is perfectly fine for reading HD video out to my 50" plasma through my MBP. Yet, should I be concerned about getting a 2TB drive without a Firewire 800 port for HD video. I mean I am perfectly fine right now as I am not using it and don't see any bottleneck issues, but I just want to be sure, so hopefully some assuring advice from you guys can help me. thanks

 

[peterjcat]

For streaming USB 2.0 will be absolutely fine. FW800 would be faster when it comes to copying over your existing media to the new drive, but if that's just a one-off thing and you're just occasionally adding new files to it, you should be right with the USB.

 

[DaveNinja]

I had my firewire ports die on 2 different western digital external HDs. I read that its not a rare problem. their USB ports seem to be fine, though.