Default External hard disk drive?

[abc123kes]

First of all, hello everyone!

I have a Dell XPS laptop and use an 80 GB external hard drive for storage. I actually found a site that has the drive which can be found here:
Toshiba (MK8032GAX) 80 GB IDE Hard Drive Product Reviews and Price Comparison - Epinions.com

But I am running out of space and was thinking of buying a new drive, say at least 250 GB.

I checked with the local computer store and they had 320GB for CAD 72.00, which I found quite reasonable.

The only thing is I am not sure if I should get SATA or IDE, which the guy at the store asked me and I had no idea what the difference was. I think the one I have right now is IDE (it says on the site I posted above) but I don't know much more than that.

My main concern is speed, as I will be using the new one to store movies and it would be better if I could just watch the movies straight from the drive rather than having to copy it onto the pc because the speed is too slow.

Also, as I have a laptop, it would have to connect via a USB port, so I would need an enclosure (or hard drive box), which I am aware of!

So any advice on would be much appreciated

 

[Bodaggit23]

Do you have an eSATA input on your laptop? Probably not,
but that would be the way to go. SATA hard drive in an enclosure
with eSATA output, into your eSATA laptop. Dreaming maybe...

So, I don't think it will matter which kind you get as long as
it fits in the enclosure you choose.

SATA is faster than USB, so the drive will be choked either way.