Decent flash that can be fired remotely?

I'm looking to purchase my first flash. I don't know a ton about these, I've only played with them a couple of times but I like the results I've gotten. I think my biggest requirement is to be able to fire the flash remotely. Lately I've been doing a lot of action sports work and it would be nice to stick the flash somewhere to light the subject from the side while I'm shooting the subject from the front, for an example.

I'm sure I'll also be using the flash on the camera as well at times too. So far in the little bit of time I've had to play with a 580ex and a 430ex I've only used them in ETTL mode.

I am on a little bit of a budget so I've been looking at the Yongnuo stuff.

If I understand correctly, the 565 has ETTL but the 560 does not, is that correct?

Is ETTL even something I should be worried about? I'm shooting with a 5d2 and I only shoot in manual mode on the camera so I'm somewhat familiar dialing in exposure settings. What I'm wondering is if ETTL is not that big of a deal would it make more sense to save some money and go with the 560?

Would the RF-603 be a good way to fire either of these remotely?

One last question, for now I know with ETTL I can only get my shutter speed up to 1/200 and it sounds like with the RF-603 it only goes up to 1/320. When I'm shooting action stuff I generally don't go any lower than 1/500 and usually I try to be closer to 1/1000 to make sure I freeze the action. How do you accomplish that with a strobe?

Correct the 565 is ETTL and the 560 is manual only. If it's your only flash, get one that does ETTL for those times when you do want to shoot casual stuff without thinking or for easy bounce flash.

Your camera is the limiting factor on your shutter speed using traditional flash. Certain Canon flashes have a high speed sync mode where the flash pulses so that you can use a faster sync speed, but none of the YN flashes do that. HSS lowers your flash power considerably and using it off camera requires a rather expensive transmitter setup (canon ST-e2, or PW or other radio triggers) One option would be to get a long ETTL cord which allows you to retain HSS using a canon flash. Do a search here for sync speed to understand the limitations of sync speed.

If your flash expsoure is more than 2 stops brighter than your ambient light you can use flash duration to stop motion rather than shutter speed. The short duration of the flash can stop motion even with a long shutter speed, thats how they freeze water droplets.

I would get an ETTL flash if I were you.