Firewire chain for external audio interface and hard drive

Question

I use Logic Studio 8 on a Macbook Pro with a Presonus Firebox, an external Lacie Firewire hard drive for audio recording, and another Lacie Firewire drive for backups.
Is there a recommended chain order when chaining my Firewire devices together? I read somewhere on a ProTools forum that they recommend putting their Firewire audio interface Mbox2Pro at the end of the chain.
So right now I have Macbook Pro -> Backup Drive -> Audio Drive -> Presonus Firebox. I once had it in a different order with the audio drive first, but I found it was reading more slowly from/to the audio drive when it was in that order. I have no idea technologically why this would be the case.

Answer 1

I just found and joined this great forum. Following up on Ray's comments about his MacBook set-up, I have a similar MacBook 2ghz, 4mb ram, 9400 chipset, and am exploring getting into Logic Pro 8 and was wondering if my MacBook was underpowered, and whether I needed to step up right away to a MacBook Pro because of my lack of PCI slots for recording audio to an external eSATA drive.
I was encouraged to hear that the USB 2.0 connection for Ray's external WD 7200 hard drive has worked and improved things and his audio isn't getting choked and he is not getting the clicks and other problems.
I'm wondering if Ray or anyone else has any other tips on using a MacBook for Logic and for optimizing one's setup. And Ray, did you notice a point at which the clicks started? .. in terms of number of tracks? Or were they present from the outset? I'm wondering how many tracks you are running now on your system.
I might mention that I don't have an audio interface yet but was impressed with what I've read about the Apogee Duet. Any comments on interfaces and the Duet?
By the way, I'm just recording one instrument/one track at a time and perhaps occasionally two instruments at a time. And right now, my main purpose for getting into Logic is for editing and mixdown of pre-existing tracks that have already been created on a standalone hard-disc based DAW. If all goes well and if I like the whole Logic experience I'd expect to get a more powerful MacBook Pro or even a Mac Pro or whatever higher end iMac exists in the future.
To summarize, all I'm intending to do initially with the MacBook is:
1) transfer individual digital tracks from a standalone hard disc-based DAW into Logic for mixdown and mastering.
2) Record a few extra new tracks one at a time - probably not using any instrument plug-ins but relying on external synth/sampler/guitar sound sources ..in each song (maybe 3-4 tracks at most), and
3) apply standard effects like reverb and EQ and panning to the mix down and master songs, each song containing a of approx 25-40 tracks.
My basic question is, can a MacBook 2Ghz with firewire 400, 4gb memory and USB2.0 to external hard drive handle this or is it underpowered? Thanks.
Derek