[STF]

I just bought a Stag Arms Model 8 M4 and I'm trying to find a good quad rail for around 200ish dollars. I was wondering if a free floating rail is better than a drop in one and if a free floating rail is better should I get a two piece one?

[Ruzai]

Well if you're really going to spend $200 dollars on a fore-end you may as well go with one of the better free-floats, JP Enterprises makes a modular handgaurd that is pretty kick-*** and you can have rails at any of the traditional 12, 6, 9, and 3 o'clock postions as well as the other 4 off-set positions.
Their philosophy of having "just enough rails" to save space and weight is a really good idea, not to mention they sell pretty decent heat sinks that fits under most of their fore-ends for cooling during rapid fire.
I have this on my list for my 6.8mm Spc M4 build list and have heard nothing but good things about them.
Here's their home page---> JP Rifles
They're going for about $170 on Midwayusa.com
Shooting Supplies, Reloading, Gunsmithing, Hunting, Ammunition, Gun Parts & Rifle Scopes — MidwayUSA

[STF]

So free floats are better than the drop in ones?? And I was also wondering (i'm new to guns) do you have to take off the forearm each time to clean to rifle??

[Ruzai]

Field stripping and cleaning, no, but if you want to do a detailed cleaning of the rifle you may have to.

As for your question about free-floats, when you shoot a bullet through a barrel, the barrel oscillates (a giant word for basically vibrating from the spinning of the bullet) if this process is interupted by a fore-end it can change accuracy, not significantly enough for the average Joe hunting white tail at 50 yards to notice but it helps to squeeze out as much as you can. This is more prevailent in wood and cheaper plastic stocks as they like to expand and contract with hot and cold temperatures and moisture.
This free-floating process on fore-ends of guns is common on bolt actions and is one of the main reasons they are so accurate.

So in a sense the free-floats are better accuracy wise, BUT if you're just looking for an OK fore-end for an AR there are free-floats that dont cost $200 but all the one's (including the JP Enterprise's one) I've seen usually require minor fitting and gunsmithing and if whoever is installing if for you, whether it be yourself or someone else, make sure they know what they are doing.
A drop-in is not a horrible way to go if you want to save some money but it does cut down own your longer range accuracy like every other non-free-float fore-end.
One of those things where you have to weight the pros and cons for youreslf.