re: #6 erik_t
USB3 is unfortunately not very mainstream yet, especially if you’re a laptop person.
I picked up a USB3/1394b split box, and that was a dramatically better purchase for me. A fair number of systems are out there with 1394 but without USB3.
That’s true but USB3 is compatible with USB2. The Firewire 400 (1394) bus is a better choice than USB2 if you have the port - it’s significantly faster.
I have several external drive enclosures with Firewire 800, which is an even better choice, but not very common except on Macs.