I have three LaCie externals (160, 320 and 500 GB) bought at various times over the last six years or so (the most recent the 500 I got a couple months ago). I have had nothing but great experiences with them and my Macs over the years and have recommended them to many people who have also had great experiences.
All three of mine are the d2 Quadra with triple interface (FireWire 400 and 800 and USB 2). The LaCies come already Mac formatted (though you can format them for a PC and then use them on both since the Mac recognized the PC formated drive). If you're only going to use it on a Mac, though, you literally just have to take it out of the box and plug it in and you're good to go.
FireWire is faster than USB and FireWire 800 is nearly as fast as accessing your internal hard drive. Macs have been shipping with FireWire ports for years so if yours is new I'd say you have both types. They look like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FireWire-46_Diagram.svg) (400 on the left and 800 on the right). One of the things I love about FireWire on the LaCie d2 Quadra is that it is daisychainable. I've got my drives plugged into each other via FireWire 800 cables so I only have to plug one cable into my laptop to make them all show up.
Anyway, I am a big fan of LaCie and Mac together so if you've got any specific questions about the drives or whatever just ask. :)
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All three of mine are the d2 Quadra with triple interface (FireWire 400 and 800 and USB 2). The LaCies come already Mac formatted (though you can format them for a PC and then use them on both since the Mac recognized the PC formated drive). If you're only going to use it on a Mac, though, you literally just have to take it out of the box and plug it in and you're good to go.
FireWire is faster than USB and FireWire 800 is nearly as fast as accessing your internal hard drive. Macs have been shipping with FireWire ports for years so if yours is new I'd say you have both types. They look like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FireWire-46_Diagram.svg) (400 on the left and 800 on the right). One of the things I love about FireWire on the LaCie d2 Quadra is that it is daisychainable. I've got my drives plugged into each other via FireWire 800 cables so I only have to plug one cable into my laptop to make them all show up.
Anyway, I am a big fan of LaCie and Mac together so if you've got any specific questions about the drives or whatever just ask. :)