Booting from USB-powered External Optical Drive

Hey all,
I am looking to update my unibody MacBook as follows - I am swapping out my internal SuperDrive to replace it with an OWC Data Doubler bracket & Intel SSD. The Intel SSD will eventually be for the OS and apps and my original HDD will be for media.
It looks like there may be an Intel SSD firmware update I'll need to install and to do so I need to burn the firmware ISO image to a CD-R then boot from it to carry out the update. Since I'll have removed the internal SuperDrive I'll be getting an external optical drive for this and all future CD-related tasks.
So the question is, will I be able to boot from a CD in an external USB-connected optical drive? Will any possible limitation be the MacBook's fault or the external optical drive's fault?
Any other way around this if I can't boot from the external drive? I wanted to go the USB flash-drive route, but the Intel site (http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18363&lang=eng) says a CD-R is specifically needed, or do they always say that? I know I've booted the Mac OS X installation disc from a flash drive before...
Thanks so much.
Message was edited by: lauber1322
Message was edited by: lauber1322

You should not have a problem booting from an external USB drive (the MacBook Air does this, for example). My recommendation is to buy an external drive from Amazon and try it. They don't have a restocking fee so you can return it if your plan doesn't pan out.
As far as installing the firmware to the intel drive, is it possible to install the SSD in the regular hard drive slot first before replacing the optical drive and running the update that way? (I don't know much about SSDs, sorry). Once the firmware itself is updated, then you could put it in the optical slot like you wanted.

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