Final Cut Express slow on iMac i7

Hey guys, I was wondering if you could help me out with this issue I'm having with FCE.
I just purchased an i7 iMac yesterday in hopes that my FCE would be running much smoother when using HD clips. However that is not the case. There must be something I'm doing wrong. This computer can play 5+ HD movies at the same time no problem. But in Final Cut the playback is very very choppy and slow. I feel like the renders are skipping frames as well.
I transferred all of my files from my Macbook Pro to this iMac, including all of the FCE files. This might have something to do with it?
Also I have done a few google searches, and I have seen people suggesting running FCE from an external HD. Well luckily I'm hooked up to a Mybook Firewire 800 1 TB hard drive. However after dragging all of the final cut express documents and shortcut into the hard drive, the problem still persists.
Do any of you guys have any idea what I should do?
Thank you very much for reading

Okay guys, I just found out something thats weird. The item properties I posted earlier were for one of my lower end HD clips.
This time I tried using one of my biggest clips which was 4 Gigs. I know for a fact that this clip is either 30 fps or 60 fps. The playback in VLC viewer is beautiful. Now the item properties of this video is saying 10 fps as well. Even the clip I posted before has great playback. I'm actually positive these clips are all at least 30fps, but somehow once I drag them into FCE, they become 10fps :/
with 1280 x 720 resolution
again h.264
is it possible I have my FCE set up incorrectly? I remember when I installed it, it asked me about choosing a certain format at the beginning. I think I chose the 720p option.
Sasha - Thank you for the insight. Do you know if the video will lose any quality in the process of using MPEG streamclip? Will my video still be in hi-def?
Oops, I just realized that I never mentioned, that I am using .mkv clips, for what it's worth.
Thanks again, you guys have been great, and I hope you can continue to assist me
Message was edited by: reznick

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Message was edited by: SteveKir

Final Cut Express slow on iMac i7

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