ata100 vs sata drive in firewire enclosure? speed

[cekiert]

I know this doesn't exactly apply to osx86.. I acquired a working g4 1ghz emac with keyboard for 50$ at my local recycler.. I'm looking into boasting it up a little bit.. Its getting its ram maxed out at 1 gb, dont laugh... and im looking to replace the harddrive with a high performance low capacity drive..

I'm looking for the fastest drive, seems like ssd fits this well..

 

this emac is equipped with firewire 400, and ata100

from what I understand firewire has a faster transfer rate than ata 100... would a ssd drive be fast enough to use the extra bandwidth that firewire has to offer?

 

reliability of firewire?

I've yet to use a firewire drive, I know I have had 5 external usb drives. on occasion during accidental disconnects

Ive lost 3 usb to ata controllers, even though the drives themselves are working fine as internal drives. is firewire external enclosures plagued to simliar issues as their usb counter parts

 

before I hear the trash comments.. I know they are coming, I'm mostly looking to use this as for a screen sharing client

and maybe for a tiny amount of xgrid work.. I have faster hardware for more cpu intensive tasks... I'm just looking to use my emachine less as it heats up a whole room 10 degrees in 30 minutes, while this g4 can run all day with out any noticeable temperature increase of the room