The one thing I'm surprised about is the external SSD for the 27" iMac. I can't see how it would be faster running the whole system through the Firewire bus.

The one thing I'm surprised about is the external SSD for the 27" iMac. I can't see how it would be faster running the whole system through the Firewire bus. Here are some throughput benchmarks of SSD drives I found from OWC (a well known Mac accessory online retailer): 7200 rpm external drive: eSATA - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQM7500GB16/HIT0A72335/eSATA.png http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQM7500GB16/HIT0A... FW800 - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQM7500GB16/HIT0A72335/fw800.png http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQM7500GB16/HIT0A... SSD external drive: eSATA - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQMSSD050/eSATA.png http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQMSSD050/eSATA.p... FW800 - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQMSSD050/fw800.png http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQMSSD050/fw800.p... Summary: Via eSATA, the 7200rpm drive tops out around 100MB/sec while the SSD drive hits > 200MB/sec. Via FW800 both drives only max out around 80MB/sec which is the approximate upper limit of FW800 I believe. DHH, if you're reading perhaps you can provide a more subjective take on the real-world performance? I'm curious as I have a 27" iMac and would love to be able to get the SSD speed boost without taking off the glass and voiding warranties.