Old iMac with Snow Leopard to new iMac with Lion - can I do this?

Hi folks,
1. I have a 6 year old iMac running Snow Leopard (can't upgrade to Lion)
2. Just bought a new iMac running Lion.
3. I want to migrate all accounts, files, apps, etc from old iMac to new iMac (about 150 Gb worth)..
4. I would normally connect both iMacs either with an Ethernet cable or via wi-fi network and run Setup Assistant to move everything to the new iMac.
Based on my experience doing this on other Macs I have, I know it's gonna take 8 to 10 hours to migrate everything over to the new iMac so I'm looking for ways to migrate so my iMac isn't tied up all day and I don't have to spend all day in front of the computer making sure all is o.k. So, if I make a bootable clone on a separate portable drive using SuperDuper, can I hook that drive up (instead of old iMac) to my new iMac and run Setup Assistant that way? That would free up the old iMac to use while the new iMac crunches away copying all those files from the portable drive. Will that work? Has anyone done this successfully? Any cautions or things to watch for?
Thanks everyone,
Ed

Linc,
Thanks for the info, but I want to use an external FireWire drive as the target disk, not the old iMac. I'd need to keep the external FireWire drive connected to the old iMac in order to use the screen, keyboard, mouse, etc. Could I just connect the FW drive to the new iMac and then start up the new iMac in hopes it would "recognize" the external FireWire drive through Setup Assistant?

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Old iMac with Snow Leopard to new iMac with Lion - can I do this?

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