Thanks so much for the information! I knew this was the right place to get answers.
The unit that I am looking at is actually a 1.5 TB external with the following specs:
Triple USB 2.0, FireWire and eSATA interfaces; USB data transfer up to 480 MB/sec., FireWire data transfer up to 400 MB/sec. and eSATA data transfer up to 3GB/sec.
Because I'm not sure of what connections he has on his computer (it's less than 6 months old but I know he tricked it out when he ordered it, boys and their toys and all that

), I'm thinking it might be good to cover all the bases, based on what you all have said. Thanks.