Time to upgrade! A few questions.

[GermanyChris]

Stands a good chance of not being able to boot OS X from a non-Apple external optical drive ... not that it matters with a brand new system and Internet Recovery, and also the ability to install the OS from a USB key, but still ... it should be pointed out that if you own an older SL Mac, and you want to reinstall OS X SL on it from the DVD's it came with, you probably won't be able to unless it's an actual Apple USB SuperDrive (or you still have the internal SuperDrive in it.)

Pointing this out in case somebody finds this thread with the search feature 6+ months from now.

You can boot from any external DVD drive…

@OP or you could just buy one with an optical driver built in..

 

[duervo]

You can boot from any external DVD drive…

@OP or you could just buy one with an optical driver built in..

Not any, and not on every Mac.

In other words ... YMMV.

 

[GermanyChris]

Not any, and not on every Mac.

In other words ... YMMV.

I have yet to own one that wouldn't even as far back as my PowerBooks.

Dogpile shows no one complaining their rMBP's cannot boot from any external DVD drive..MBA shows some issues but the work around is to pick it from system preferences.

 

[Freyqq]

Stands a good chance of not being able to boot OS X from a non-Apple external optical drive ... not that it matters with a brand new system and Internet Recovery, and also the ability to install the OS from a USB key, but still ... it should be pointed out that if you own an older SL Mac, and you want to reinstall OS X SL on it from the DVD's it came with, you probably won't be able to unless it's an actual Apple USB SuperDrive (or you still have the internal SuperDrive in it.)

Pointing this out in case somebody finds this thread with the search feature 6+ months from now.

Not so sure about that. The apple external dvd drive is likely just an LG or something in an apple enclosure.