Migration Assistant vs. starting from scratch -- what's better

My new MacBook is arriving today? Should I use Migration Assistant or start from scratch and install the applications and set all the preferences myself.
I have used Migration Assistant to copy everything from an iBook to my current MacBook. If I use it one more time, won't I have a lot of extraneous system files and additional garbage that I'm copying over from two computers ago? Isn't it better to install Office from scratch?
But if I don't use Migration Assistant, how do I install my iTunes and iPhoto libraries and keep playlists and settings intact?
Please advise! I'm sure the Migration Assistant is the easier route, but I'm just worried about who-knows-how-many hidden system files are being copied over from my original iBook!

migration assistant is the easiest as you say. you can choose to migrate user data only in which case it will only migrate your home directory (this will take care of all your itunes and iphoto libraries) and you'd have to reinstall the applications from scratch. this is a bit of a pain if you have many applications. if your computer is working ok I'd probably stick with Migration Assistant.

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