I have an external optical drive. It sits in my closet. Plastic discs are now a niche. And not a big one at that. The future is upon us!
I think a mac mini with 2 21.5 inch monitors might be nice. But alas, only 27 inch is available.
You could always get 3rd party monitors.
Does the Mini support dual thunderbolt displays off of the single connector? Cuz I think that the Air does (did?) not.
I reckon that the 2013 Mini will drop the fw800 for a second thunderbolt.