This was straight out of the Apple factory. Who knows what manufacturer. Most likely many MBPros (and others) configured the same may not have the same manufacturer of drives (probably not going to call them that long) or memory, etc.
Regarding theTimeMachine - these are Apple TimeCapsules backing up over my home network. Guess after the initial backup the incremental ones are quick. I thought, when asked by the Time Machine software, if I wanted to inherit the existing backup it would be quicker. Guess not.
Looking forward to trying a Thunderbolt drive. Have to get over the outlay for the MBPro before buying more. ;)