Powerbook G4/pro Tools/external Hard Drives, Newbie help Options

[jawnzap7]

First I just wanna say thanks to everybody on this site. I just joined but, have already learned a ton just from poking around. It seems as if everybody here is very patient, and informative...now that the requisite ass-kissing is over , lets get down to business...
So I just recieved my 15 inch Powerbook G4. It's a 1.67 Ghz model, with 2 Gb of Ram, and a 100 Gb 7200 rpm Hard Drive. I am currently awaiting my M Box2 (factory bundle) with Pro Tools, via UPS.
I have read the documentation on the digidesign website, and have read that it is strongly suggested to get an external/additional hard drive, instead of using the internal boot drive. But is it necessary? I got the larger internal drive hoping that it might be sufficient. If not I can live with that. I'll spend the money if I must.
So my next question is this...is pro tools compatible with usb 2.0 external Hard drives? Or can you ONLY use firewire/sata/whatever else they list drives. The usb 2.o's are cheaper for more storage than the firewire models. But I definently believe you get what you pay for.
And what about internal drives placed in shells? That seems to be the cheapest/most economical option, but I don't know nothing about that stuff. Is it hard to do?...what is my best strategy here?

[lepetitmartien]

Once you jump to more than a few tracks, the external drive will be the evidence You can't ask one drive to assume both: system accesses, virtual memory, apps accesses, and tracks.

USB is faster on the paper but way less efficient for real time jobs, Firewire or eSata will give you the best performance without glitches. Now if it's a budget decision and you don't need a huge number of tracks, USB2 should do it. Personally, I mount drives I want into enclosures I've chosen myself. this way I know what i've got, and I can change the drive easily if need be.

Remember a 100-200GB drive is already a lot of storage save if you're into motion picture original soundtracks.

For compatibility, check the compato pages on Digidesign site, other set-ups can work (nobody can test everything), but these are working without fuss.

What are you talking about drives in "shells"? Can you explain?

(thanks for the ass-kissing, it's always cool to have some thanks by members for all the work done here and our wonderful members too