Using Final Cut with external USB 2.0 drive

I use Final Cut Studio on a 2-year old MacBook Pro. The MacBok Pro has Firewire 800 and but only USB 2.0. I've been using an external Firewire drive with it for storing my movies. Now it is full and I need to get another external drive. However the new drives I've seen tend to be only USB.
My question: Will it be a problem to use Final Cut using USB 2.0? (The new drives are USB 3.0, but the computer is only 2.0). Will I be able to edit movies that are on the extenal drive? Or will I need to store the "in-progress" movies on the computer, and then move them to the external drive when I'm done with them.
And when I ask "will I be able to" I mean doing it without seeing endless beachballs...
(Also, if the response is "get another FW drive," then any suggestions as to which one?)
Thanks!
Dan

DanK wrote:
Let me make sure I understand this: If I store completed movies on the USB drive, I should have no problem viewing them, as long as I have no other external USB devices connected to the MacBook.
You can use the USB drive for archiving projects but as said before you shouldn't edit with one. While the nominal maximum speed for USB 2 and FW400 is not that far apart the two protocols work differently. USB 2 achieves the max speed in "bursts" which is not what you want for video.
DanK wrote:
However for editing movies, I should have them on either the FW drive or on the computer itself.
Is that correct? Will it work to edit movies on the FW-400 drive, or should they be on the computer itself?
While you can have the project file itself on your system drive, all the media files should be on external drives. This way your system drive gets to run the software and the external keeps the media and renders.
DanK wrote:
And if I get a new FW-800 drive, will I be able to edit movies stored on that (i.e. will I see a difference between FW-400 and FW-800?)
FW800 is definitely faster. See a comparison here: http://www.barefeats.com/hard70.html

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