Question about external HDD's

[Bwaaa]

So i'm pretty much a noob with hardware at the moment, but with a new build computer would it be possible to forego an internal HDD completely and install the OS to my 1TB USB external?

Kind of a hypothetical question I suppose because I wouldn't do it myself, but I was just wondering theres a reason why it wouldn't work?

 

[drakioned]

There are some reasons why it wouldn't work, if you're using Windows, largely related to when Windows loads USB drivers. However, these can be worked around (there are guides on the internet), most Linux distros will happily install on an external hard disk, but a fairly major disadvantage is that accessing a hard disk over USB is slower than over SATA.

 

[SparkyG]

As Above

I have a netbook that boots Linux from a USB stick but Windows is a bit harder to do