External Drive Vs Firewire Drive, Options

[Philosorhymes]

Hi all, I would like to purchase one of the new macs (I am not yet sure if it will be a pro or normal macbook) but I would eventually be putting some big sample libraries from Native Instrument on the drives.

I have a question though, Which would be faster, between these two configurations below


1) Upgrading my macbook or (macbook pro), to a 7200rpm drive and installing my libraries on this OR

2) Leaving the standard drive in my macbook (or macbook pro) and getting an external Bus powered Firewire Drive and installing my libraries on this. (The external will be 5400rpm).


The idea is that I carry minimal bulk so I do not really want to get an external 7200rpm drive as all these require power supplies which are normally fairly bulky.


Many Thanks in advance.

[lepetitmartien]

If you're going further than a few tracks at the same time and you stream samples, you'll NEED the external drive.

And I think too that the 7200 external firewire drive will be mandatory.

Note that the new big 2.5" drives of 200-250 GB are fast nearly as a 7200, so maybe it'll be a good solution one day with an external enclosure.