[oulablank]

Pro tools and plug ins tend to be cpu hogs so if your session is on your internal drive as well it will really slow down / screw up your performance . A dedicated drive will alleviate this . I have an imac and what i do is plug a 400 cable from my 002 directly to my imac 400 port. Then I plug my external hard drive directly to my imac 800 port with an 800 cable. From there I just daisy chain my drives with the 800. Like you mentioned , you could have the hard drive in between the 003 and the cpu but I prefer to keep them separate .Whatever you do , make sure that you do not plug your external hard drive into the 2nd 400 port on the 003.