is it worth getting an external hd with a fire wire?

With out a standalone GPU (video card) you are wasting your time converting videos, on-board graphics suck. Instead of messing with external drives and firewire (Steve Jobs 'reach around')add a second 7200 rpm internal drive.

.02

your CPU is a budget price driven component, a Yugo

so would you get another hard drive or a new video card?

[maks]

so would you get another hard drive or a new video card?

I would replace the CPU. It's not going to make your uploads go any faster, but converting between formats, etc will work much better.