Seeking advice on new iMac config

I want to purchase a new 27" iMac.  I want an SSD drive, but I do not want to purchase it (or a fusion drive) from Apple.  Here is the thinking:
1- I purchase a new iMac with 3TB (non-fusion) drive.  Separately, I buy a USB3 PCIe SSD from OWC.
2- I assume the iMac arrives with OS X Mountain Lion loaded.  So upon arrival, I back up the 3TB drive onto the SSD drive.  Then I make the SSD drive the boot disk.
3- So now any OS X update (or new software I purchase from the App Store) will load to the SSD drive.  The SSD drive will contain the most current software versions.
4- If I ever want to revert back to the 3TB drive as the boot drive, then the original (i.e., older) software versions on that drive will be automatically updated with downloads from the App Store.
Will the above work ok?  Any serious drawbacks?
Thank you for your comments ...

Should work.
1) add ssd drive to the tunderbolt port
2) format ssd to guid boot drive, hfs+ journaled
3) use CCC to copy the recovery drive to the SSD
4) use CCC to clone the 3TB drive to the SSD
5) use system preferences to change the boot drive to the SSD
6) reboot
7) shrink partition of the 3TB drive down to something around the size of your SSD, let the rest become a data drive.  It will remain bootable when needed.
The risks???? thunderbolt reliability over time, I don't know.

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