the thunderbolt are just starting to roll out....

I know guys that still rock USB2.0 externals.

but clearly at this state, the FW800 is the way to go on the external side.
is it future proof with the rumors of mac going that way it seem?
only time will tell.

WD makes a "MAC" 7200 RPM series...(I have 3 of them... all are solid)
require power though

I also have the goFlex 1.5 7200 FW800 external.
which fits in your back pocket, has no moving parts (no more snapped off usb cable housings) and is Bus powered.
Id reccommend this one.

athough.
hammering away rapid fire on cue points you will see some performance lag

a thunderbolt drive with a 5400 or 7200 hard disk is about twice as fast as FW800. but you won't even be close to thunderbolt max speeds of 10Gbps (1.2GBps) . best you'll be able to do is 6Gbps (768MBps) and that's with an ssd. Keep in mind those are theoretical numbers...real world numbers will be much, much lower.

thunderbolt is exteremly pricey. the cable alone is $50 and to get half of the available speed will require 2 or more SSD's in Raid 0.

bottom line is FW800 has more than enough bandwitdth for audio/video. I also recommend this.

Thanks for the advice Joshua and Dj Nyce!! Now with my PC I always had to run my Video on a powered external !! Does this still hold true with the Mac ??

FW800 is bus-powered; so no power supply needed.

with usb it depends on the external. some external's can run on usb power alone, others require a usb y-cable or a power supply.

if you are going to mac get a FW800 external and you'll be fine.

I've got a WD passport studio which are good as its got both FW400/800 support and USB connections.

So gives you connection options if you want a few people sharing the same laptop rather than switching drives/laptops.

just to add it runs on USB power so no power supply or y-cable required as per Nyce's post.