HD - external vs. internal and SATA vs. IDE

In terms of speed, how do these compare? I don't just mean faster or slower, but more or less how much faster or how much slower, say at 7200 rpm?

external vs. internal

SATA vs. IDE

Are usb or firewire the only or the fastest connections to external ones?

Thanks.

The ideas behind having an external drive is mainly to either add storage capacity to a machine without room like a flat not AT or ATX desktop model or to carry large files from one machine to another. The usb method simplies that process. SATA drives are geared to mirror each other in an array intended originally for faster access to stored data whiile the ide primary was the host for the OS. Newer boards can now be found that strictly run Serial ATA drives with no ide controllers being seen. Those at present are not as common and easy to find at this time. For detailed information on SATA the best place to review is at Serial ATA There are downloadable specification sheets available.

Internal ones are faster. This probably has to do with the type of connection. External ones using USB or firewire (400 and 800) are limited not only by the external cases processes but also the its connection to the computer. You can also connect an external hard drive by ethernet or later on eSata. I think it can be done wirelessly to but that would fall under ethernet (though at different speeds).

I wouldn't run a wrieless setup for a hard drive. There are too many variables that can see loss of data. Wireless networking is a different matter. The usb method allows backing data off of a drive fast when you have a system failure in progress if there is only the primary drive in the case. The WD Raptor drives offer the high end speed while seeing 75gb as the largest size currently available.