External Enclosures
 

Interested in buying this:

Newegg.com - ICY DOCK MB559 MB559UEA-1S Aluminum body with partial plastic 3.5" USB2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure - Retail

To house this:

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

SATA isn't supported on my system. But since the HD will be connected using the enclosure's firewire interface, it will still be perfectly operational, correct?

Also, is it even worth getting a SATA 3.0 if it is being used solely in conjunction with the aforementioned enclosure? Is the firewire interface enough to exploit the full capability of SATA 3.0 speeds?

EDIT: Wait, this is bullshit. The total of these two items is nearly $200, while a 750GB Seagate Free Agent is $140. Can I get a laugh. Is SATA 3.0 really life-altering.

It is when its on the inside lol.

I've never found the Free Agents aesthetically pleasing...something about the hideous yellow that they used (like with really old computers) Being on my desk...just doesn't sit well with me.

Well, enclosures are a boon if you plan to change out HDD's on a regular basis. You can't really beat that ease or upgrade versatility unless all you need for the foreseeable future is a solitary external drive. I'm only seeing the 750GB model for ~$170 so it sounds like you found a good price especially given the 5-year warranty of theirs (which might be needed judging from the apparent failure rate on higher capacity Free Agents).