External hard drive options and sata 2

Question

Hi guys:) My 100GB hard drive on my comp is always so full. I have a smaller (as in laptop sized) 80GB hard drive that I use for video work. The smaller size is great for portability though I have to use external power. The other big issue is that I only have one firewire slot on my mac and one on the Hard drive which means that I have to capture onto my mac - not great with the limitted space. And so then after that I copy to hard drive.
In the ideal world, I would like to purchase a small in size but huge in capacity hard drive that does not have the above issues. Though lets move back into reality ...
So, I was thinking of getting an external hard drive 500gb, possibly the lacie d2 SATA II https://www.epowermac.com.au/product.asp?P_ID=628 and then purchasing an express card. Why do you guys think?? Is this going to be faster than firewire 400/800 or not. I think you can also get a firewire convertor card too, which then will give my mac two firewire 800 slots. Would this option be better?
Thanks for your time and responses to all those that will assist:)

Answer 1

What format do you work with ?
I'll have a stab and say, Pal dv but if it's Pal Hdv
the same applies.
If it's Pal DvCpro then sing out - the rules change
somewhat for that.
Your transfer device is a camera ?
You're recording on tape, right ?
1) You can configure your system like this.
Mac>fw drive>fw to deck/cam - daisy chained using the
fw 400 port.
Put the cam/deck on the end b/c that device is likely
to be rated at 100mb/sec so it's the slowest. That
should negate the capture then additional transfer.
2) Plenty of thoughts about LaCie - some love 'em,
some hate 'em. Same goes with all drive
manufacturers. Personally I prefer IBM/Hitachi and
Seagate - shrug. Some others Western Digital or
Maxtor. No drive is bullet proof - and painful when
you lose one.
3) Express card - yes if you need the raw throughput
and plan to Raid. It's not going to speed up anything
too much though at capture as your cam/deck will be
trundling along at 100 mb max.
You'll need to buy Sata drives and enclosures. You
may get some more RT in fcp.
4) You may get 2 slots on the one card but they share
the same bus - the best fw rigs have seperate buses
or daisy chained as above.
Anyway that's a start - you'll have to fill in the
blanks for us.
I work with dvpal atm and wish to transfer video from a camera. My church will be getting some professional cameras soon, so i'm not sure exactly what format that'll be but no doubt higher quality. I'll also have use of a new beaut mac pro at my church, though I'll still wish to work at home as well which is why I wish to resolve my issue.
I cant currently daisy chain with my 80GB hard drive due to it only having one fire wire input.
I didnt explain that the express card I was looking at was a SATA one also. According to the specs, the 'Tempo SATA Express 34' controller has two external, 3Gb/s, SATA II ports, and plugs directly into a MacBook Pro (15" or 17"). It makes it sound like each port has a transfer rate of 3Gb/s which is heaps more than 800?? I suppose one issue with doing it this way though is the issue of hooking it up to the mac pro which I dont think has an express slot.
Hope this time i've made better sense:)