Best way to clean install mountain lion on a new ssd

Am in the process of upgrading my late 2008 MacBook Pro (15").  Have had 8 GB RAM installed for over a year now, as well as Lion, and it's doing fine but want to upgrade it some more to get another couple years out of it.  Have ordered a 120 GB SSD and will be installing it in place of the optical drive to speed up boot and programs access.  Also would like to upgrade to Mountain Lion IF it'll upgrade performance and add worthwhile features.  Assuming that's the case, is it best to do a clean install of Mountain Lion on the new SSD or just clone the existing hard drive?  What's the best technique for doing a clean install and for cloning? 

Go to the App Store. Sign in with your Apple ID and password. Purchase and download Mountain Lion. It's over 4 GBs so it will take some time to download.
When it finishes the installer will launch automatically and present you with a window for installing. I suggest you quit the installer at this point. Follow these instructions:
Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer
1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/
    Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button.
    Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move
    the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You
    must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes
    installing.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
  a. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
  b. After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left
      side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
  c. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one.    
      Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
      partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until
      the process has completed.
  d. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side
      list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
  e. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the
      button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
  f. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash
     drive size.
3. Use Lion DiskMaker 2.0 to put your installer clone onto the USB flash drive.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.
You can then install your SSD. Boot the computer from the Mountain Lion USB flash drive to install onto the SSD after you partition and format the SSD:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from Mountain Lion USB flash drive installer. When the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button.
Boot Using OPTION key:
  a. Restart the computer.
  b. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
      "OPTION" key.
  c. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
  d. Select the USB Flash Drive Installer.
  e. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. When formatting is complete quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Install/Reinstall Mountain Lion and click on the Continue/Install button.

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