Buying a new iMac - can you use an external SSD drive as boot drive?

Here is the question: Can you attach an external SSD and use that as your boot drive accompanying an iMac? This way all the Apple warranties stay valid but I am not saddled with the expense of the Apple installed SSD price?
Now for some background ...
I am looking to buy a new iMac replacing my loved but woefully underpowered Mac Mini. In a perfect world I would like the following set-up based on how today's iMacs can be configured:
Processor: 3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
Memory: 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB
Hard Drive: 1TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
Optical Drive: 8x double-layer SuperDrive
The problem is I'd rather not spend $3200+. I would imagine most people plug something similar in and then begin to ID must vs. nice to haves. So, here are my must haves:
Memory: Minimum 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB (I was thinking of starting with minimum and then purchase the right RAM and installing myself)
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 1GB
Hard Drive: 256GB Solid State Drive
I like to work the graphics side and have a media library of almost 1TB (uploading, downloading, converting, editing, etc.). With my existing setup I have 3+TB of external storage but again, am suffering massively in the horsepower department as it takes hours for me to do what I believe a new iMac can help me accomplish in a fraction of that time. This is not my profession so while I looked at the towers I still need this computer to serve as a family computer as well. Appreciate your thoughts and feedback.
Cheers,
-Jim

Ok this is great as we are progressing through.
So yes it can be done but there's the caveat of the "pipes" once you go external. The only option for an external SSD Drive with thunderbolt that I know of is LaCie's 240 GB version ... Priced at $800.
I think what I will need to do is suck it up. The new MacBooks have the core technology I'd like but we really want the larger screen.
Last question - should I wait/when might we expect an updated line of iMacs? In a few months or not for a while? That answer may provide some direction if it is anticipated to be sooner vs later.
Thank you!

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Buying a new iMac; can i use my eMac as a second display?

Hi, I'm just about to buy an iMac (intel core 2 duo), probably 17" 2 GHz with some extra RAM.
I currently have an eMac, and now I wonder, is there any way to use it (the eMac) as a second display for the iMac? Obviously, the eMac doesn't have any video input, but I'm thinking that maybe there is some third party solution that could send the second screen image through ethernet, firewire or usb? Or if there is any other way to solve this. Since I'm going to use the iMac for Logic Pro, I find it usable to keep the arrange window and mixer window on seperate screens, and I can't quite afford buying a new screen atm.
Though, if it doesn't work to do like this, maybe I'll buy an extra screen at some point in the future. Would I, in that case, need a special graphics card on the iMac? Or does it support two screens (with seperate content) as it is?
Thanks!

Hello,
Thanks for this great reply! I marked it as helpful.
By the way I happened to write another reply myself
(not to you, to my own post) while you wrote yours,
just wanted to note that to avoid confusion. I'm not
very used to these forums, sorry...
Yes, the forums can take some getting used to.
I saw your second post, and that is why I wrote my second reply. I thought you were clarifying based on my reply See we all get confused sometimes
Anyway, I guess a delay would probably grow
incredibly irritating very quickly, so I guess it
wouldn't be an acceptable sustainable solution,
really.
Yes, the delay would probably be quite a problem in real use. The only way I could see around it would be to move slowly and then stop and make sure that the pointer doesn't end-up beyond where you stopped.
If you waited say 3 or 4 seconds and then clicked, you would know that the pointer is where it is.
But, that would slow-down your productivity.
I think a second monitor would be best.
So maybe buying a new screen is the best/only
"solution"... In that case, I think an LCD screen is
probably best as CRT's sometimes interfer with sound
equipment... So not having to turn one screen off
everytime I want to use a microphone would be
convenient.
Yes, an LCD screen would probably be much more convenient. I much prefer LCD screens myself.
So, I'll simply be on the outlook for used LCD
screens, then... Thanks!
You're welcome. Glad I could help.
Let me know if you have other questions.

Can you use any external display with a macbook?

hi all,
I was just wondering, can you use any external display with a macbook? (i.e. gateway, and dell displays?)

To original poster:
Yes.
Provided you have the appropriate ports and cables, that is. Some monitors do not have all vga, dvi-i, dvi-d, hdmi, etc. ports, and it can be misleading that all those technologies appear to be compatible via conversion cables (they aren't all meant to be compatible, so look it up on the internet before buying).
Cheers,
Sylvain
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.9) dual boot Vista Ultimate

Can you use a external hard drive to keep all your iTunes info on it

Can you use a external hard drive to keep all your iTunes info on it

Yes.
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tt2

HT1766 Can you use an external hard drive to back up my movies in iTunes but still be able to access them or is there a device so I don't have to use a pc ??

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type gdisk
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Password:
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BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
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Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 6ED0C429-00D1-4759-B50E-04B6FB80D0E3
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First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1954210086
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 1293 sectors (646.5 KiB)
Number Start (sector)    End (sector) Size       Code Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00 EFI System Partition
   2          409640      1452940543   692.6 GiB   AF00 Customer
   3      1452940544      1454210079   619.9 MiB   AB00 Recovery HD
   4      1454211072      1954209791   238.4 GiB   0700 BOOTCAMP
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Hi..
It might depend on the tax rate for your location.
If you are in the U.S. > http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/check-taxes-in-your-state.aspx
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it is 59.99 dollers and i have 60.12 and it goes to the billing part
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mbs

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I tried that earlier this month: https://discussions.apple.com/message/15867558#15867558
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Buying a new iMac - can you use an external SSD drive as boot drive?

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