Ages old question: transfer all disk content to new MacBook Pro

Dear all. I know this question has been asked zillion times before but the answers confuse me. I have a new MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard (not Lion yet) and want to transfer all contents of my white MacBook 2008 (No FireWire !!) to the new one. I have a wireless network. Should I make a fresh backup with Time Machine to a external disk and then connect the new MacBook to that or would it be better to do it with Migration Assistant over my wireless network. In the last case, how long would 300 GB content take ? Thanks so much !

Some argue Migration Assistant from TM works but creates more headaches. This you can run after you've already set up a new machine.
Some argue that Setup Assistant from TM is better than MA above, that what occurs when you start the machine (or run OSX) for the first time.
You can also T boot the old Mac with a Firewire cable and transfer that way as well in either of the above cases or manually. I haven't tried with MA/SA yet, just manually.
Some people prefer to not have everything transferred over and then have to pick through and toss the old garbage afterwards possibly making their machines slow. As MA and SA have no brains, it's a blind copy. Some have privacy issues and don't want old application cache files tagging along for the ride.
I'm one of those that a new machine gets all fresh copies of current software and then picks out just the gems from another drive.
One is going to perform work either removing stuff and missing things and having a slowdown possibility, or one works to installs all fresh copies and keeps their machine from possibly slowing down.
So that's it. It's debatable and up to you which way you want to go about it.
The SA/MA route can bring over old programs that still run, so you don't have to need a paid upgrade.
But I figure if one is dropping several thousand on a new box, what's a few hundred more for current versions of software so there is no issues?
Guess it depends what is on the MacBook and how out of shape it is. Likely a pristine machine with little or no system level hooks or other garbage involved will MA/SA just fine. Garbage in = Garbage out.

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    Message was edited by: Philip Tyler

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