USB vs Firewire on intel iMac

a friend of mine is running his iTunes library on an external Firewire drive. He is using an intel iMac - not the absolute newest one, this one may be a year or so old.
question: I was thinking of getting him a bigger drive, and of course I noticed that firewire is more expensive than USB.
I know that on older computers (like my 2004 G5 PowerMac), USB is significantly slower than firewire.
Is that also the case with the intel iMacs?
Would firewire be noticeably faster than USB when running iTunes...
I just saw a hot deal on a USB 1 TB drive - $225... but if FW is really faster than USB, I will look for a FW drive for him!
thanks!
will

thanks to all of you!
In my experience, one needs all the speed one can get with iTunes and a large library (500 GB and up) so it sounds to me like it's worth the extra dough for a firewire drive, even for a FW 800.
Speaking of which, I noticed that the speed tests were for USB 2.0 vs FW 400 - I can only assume FW 800 is faster still, although, perhaps, not exactly twice as fast.
thanks again!
w

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