What's best?

I'm not sure if I should ask this question on forum but I'm sure someone will gently point it out if it's not allowed.
I am about to buy Snow Leopard and will need an external HD or something to back up (clone) my system. With limited finance, what is the most reliable yet least expensive way to do this.
As it would be a personal opinion, I am hoping that naming a brand is acceptable in these columns.

The problem isn't that this question isn't permitted but rather that every poster is likely to give you a different answer. You have several options and I strongly suggest that you don't limit yourself to just one - drives die, it isn't a question of if but when. Having two backups is better than one especially when you consider that drives also get stolen and damaged by fire, flood, and tornado.
To answer the question directly asked, you really can't go too wrong with a brand name, though I avoid Western Digital. I've seen too many problems with WD stamped on them. I am particularly happy with OWC's external drives and their customer support is superb. They aren't the least expensive but I'm not interested in giving my data to the low bidder. Whether you intend to use TimeMachine or clone your drive with CCC or SuperDuper, the Mercury series is a reliable external drive.
You might also consider using an online storage site such as Mozy for important data or even a largish capacity flash drive. I have an 8GB flash that today would run about $25 that holds my VIP data. I created an encrypted disk image using Disk Utilities and keep it in my briefcase.

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