External storage options: FW800, USB or SD? Bootable?

[speed-freek]

I'm looking to add some external storage to my new 2010 MBP. The Mac has the 5400rpm drive, and I have a specific goal here: I'm looking to increase boot time and general speed with some kind of fast external drive, if that's possible.

Looking into this, here's what I've uncovered so far: FW800 is faster than USB or SD, but only SD is bootable and it's quite slow. So, if the speed of OS X booting from the SD is quicker than from the internal HDD, that's one option to speed up boot times. It might also speed up general use.

Second, FW800 seems pretty fast, but I don't know how fast compared to the internal HDD. So an external SSD on FW800 could boost general use performance, even if I can't boot from it.

Furthermore, I don't know if FW800 is so fast that an external SSD raid would go even faster than one drive? Or, is it even fast enough that SSD would give any gains over a quick HDD?

Or is there no external storage option that's quicker than the internal 5400rpm disk?

What do you think?

 

[Str8edgepunker]

Last I checked, you can also boot from FW800 and USB. An external SSD over FW800 won't do much good, as it won't boost any internal computer performance and is backwards. Best bet is Internal SSD with external HDD drive for storage.

 

[GetJafix]

swap the internal 5400rpm drive with an SSD and put the stock drive into a firewire enclosure.

I personally wouldn't want to have my boot drive be an external enclosure.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

swap the internal 5400rpm drive with an SSD and put the stock drive into a firewire enclosure.

I personally wouldn't want to have my boot drive be an external enclosure.

Better yet, replace the internal Super Drive with a HD or SSD. Upgrade the stock HD to an SSD and swap the internal Super Drive for a large HD (500GB+). Install Snow Leopard on the SSD and use the HD for applications, files, etc. You can then add external drives but don't add an external SSD. That way, you might be able to have everything inside the machine instead of a bunch of drives outside.

 

[xi mezmerize ix]

To decrease boot times your best bet would be to swap the internal drive for an SSD. I don't think you can boot quicker off of any type of external drive.