Couple questions..

im getting a 1.42 mini with 1 gb of ram and an 80 gb hd. One major concern is the hd speed.. if i was to use a 7200/8 USB 2.0 (or firewire) harddrive, would i be able to boot and run off of it? Would it be faster than the slow 4200rpm hd that the mini has? Also, how would i go about hooking the mini up to my tv to watch movies? would the quality be decent? Thanks a bunch. Also, do they make an adapter so i can use my 5.1 speakers with my mini? Much love. thanks

If you're really concerned about HD speed - not sure why - you should replace the stock drive in the mini with a better mobile HD.

As to watching movies - I have no idea what the video perf of the mini gives in FPS or maximum resolution .... it comes down to bits

Apple sells an S-video adapter for the mac mini, I think it is around or less than $30. With that you would be able to plug you mini into a TV to watch movies. The quality wouldn't be great but would be ok for just watching movies. You would probably be better off just getting a cheap DVD player.