Advice: iMac i7 + PT9 + Eleven Rack?

[GanB]

Hi all,
I currently have a Windows 7 64 bit System (Core i7 CPU with 12 GB RAM) running just fine with PT 9 and Eleven Rack. I'm barely touching the system resources with what I do which is typically just a handful of virtual instruments (Strike and Structure and sometimes Kore), a couple of guitar audio tracks and a few vocal tracks. I doubt I ever run more than a dozen tracks in a song.

I am going to buy an iMac i7 with 16 GB of RAM (aftermarket Crucial Memory because Apple charges criminal prices for that much memory) for some other uses and was curious about two things:

1) What FireWire Drive should I get? (I currently use an extra internal sata drive for audio on my Windows Rig but since iMac has no eSata, I guess I need FireWire)

2) What kind of performance can I expect with an iMac? I believe both my Windows i7 CPU and the iMac are the same speed so I'm guessing I'm not going to see any performance change, but what do I know ?

Anyway, I'm open to any feedback/advice before making my purchase. I'm not considering a Mac Pro due to cost and (more importantly) I like the all in one and virtually silent iMac Approach.

Thanks!

[nst7]

Many people like these drives, and they work great:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other.../MEAQ7S1TB32M/

I would also recommend that you buy your ram from this same place. Crucial is fine, but I get the impression that the ram from OWC is exactly the same specs as Apple ram.

Also, since you're getting an I7, you might consider OWC's modification to put in an Esata port (instead of the second internal hard drive). I say this because you mentioned using virtual instruments, and this would be handy for running your sample libraries off of, while having the audio drive on firewire, and the Eleven rack on usb.

Info about it is here:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/turnkey/iMac_2010_27

If you're thinking about having this done, and you're ordering from the Apple Store, the most convenient thing would be to have the computer shipped to OWC from Apple, instead of to your home. Then they can do the modification and send it to you. You would save a little on shipping, and everything would be ready to go before you install software, etc.