Older conical minibrew 6.5 questions

I bought a 6.5 conical fermenter from Hobby Equip. just before I went on a lengthy hiatus from brewing. I never used it. I am back brewing now and got out the conical to use on my initial all grain brew since my return. Here are questions I have.

1) This older model had only a single port at the bottom of the fermenter. It has this set-up like the newer ones with a ball valve, etc., but it does not have the one on the side of the cone found on the current model. I assume it was added for a reason. What problems am I going to encounter because of this, if any? And would they be too serious to overcome?

2) All the valves and attachments are plastic. Should I invest in a brass ball valve for the fitting I do have on the bottom of the cone?

Thanks for your opinions.

the other valve/port is a racking valve. It allows you to sample beer off from above the bottom where are your trub settles. For you - just be vigilant about dumping your trub 1-2 weeks in and dump a little before you plan to goto your keg/bottling bucket to clear out anything else that settled.

yours will work fine and there are no side effects it just means you can't take samples as easily - nothing wrong with that though!