I never thought about the fact that all machines ship with a different bundle. Duh!!! That REALLY shows how "un-savvy" I am, doesn't it?
I just re-read the manual about Smart Clones being just a copy of the system files. That didn't register the first time I read it. Having no idea how much space they would take up, but knowing it would be substantially less than a full HD clone, then maybe for the time being I can just get by with my partitioned 320G internal HD. If things get "crowded" later I can get the external at that time (God, knows I've spent enough already switching from PC's to this Mac). A little savings would be nice.
Knowing what I'm doing, is that what you'd suggest, Dave? And if so, what sizes should I make the 320 internal? It will take me a long time to fill up 250GB on the main drive (if ever) so everything is pretty relative at this point.
Again, thanks for not only your advise but patience.
Lee