http://www.barefeats.com/note06.html
if you scroll down to "insights" you'll get some solid understanding of the options/speed. Certainly more important with a raid but worth considering.
Two drive raids are becoming cheaper. Caldigit is great if you have the bucks. I just ordered a G-Technology 2TB G-Raid3 Quad Interface External Hard Drive Array for about $350. I've been using a OWC Mercury-AL FW800/400/U2/eS R0 2.0TB with a macbook pro and it works fine on either the 800 or with the esata card. But only the sonnet card will give you that extra speed boost. I have a firmtek card and it is somewhat faster on esata. Plus I don't have to worry about how many things are sharing the firewire bus.
OSX 10.5.7; MAC Book PRO (EARLY 2008); Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30, Sony vx2000/PD170, Canon xl2; Pana, Sony, and Canon consumer cams; FCP certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
