Need Advice: New Intel Mac Mini Still In The Box

Hi!
Okay.. I know... I have several posts going here as I have several issues I am trying to solve rather simultaneously. Thanks for being patient with me.
I have my old 1.25 Ghz PowerPC Mac Mini running 10.4.11 and all was well and happy. Then Security Update 2007-009 happened and all went to ....well... you know and, yes, it was bad! Went to Apple, got it running of sorts as they re-installed the OS, but they used an old version of OS X. (10.4.7. Can you believe that?) This caused other problems. It continues to have all sorts of difficulties, as I have had to get applications to re-recognize that the computer is back up to 10.4.11. Currently, I am struggling with trying to get iTunes to access it's music folders on the external hard drives. Realized that I hadn't even gotten around to figuring out whether or not some of my other applications work, like some of the games and third party, etc.
The thing is I got a new Intel Mac Mini for Christmas and it's still in the box because as I suspected I need to get my old mac perfect again before I can even think about migrating stuff over to the new Mac. But.. here's the thing... it's starting to look pretty much like 2008 will come and go before I can get the old Mac ready enough to take the new Mac out of the box. This really is rather silly!
Now... I can't get the old Mac to see the music and it made me think. I have all of my iTunes music and iPhoto backed up on an external hard drive (I used Apple's "Back-up" software to do it) and in addition to this two complete copies of the iTunes music and iPhoto photos albums on two separate external hard drives. Should I just forget using migration assistant? Can I get my music and my photo albums into the new mac directly from the external hard drives?
Or...can I use "back up" to restore the music and photos into the new Mac?
I am starting to think that the best way to get my new Mac running is not risk it by attaching it to my old Mac. What do you think?
Thank you so much for any advice or experiences you can give. -Charlotte

I know that I am vacillating back and forth as to what to do. Thanks so much for being patient with me. All of your advice is really appreciated and I am at least closing in on deciding on my strategy. Probably will follow your first response advice, especially considering that some of the third party apps may not have updates to handle Leopard quite yet. Anyway... it's a good strategy since everything is on the externals anyway.
You can say that fine.
Ha ha ha.... yes, I've been messing around with computers since my parents bought our first Apple computer back in 1979. Just like you, I've never had a serious problem with any of the computers and we've had them all, running all sorts of things from the Original Apple and Apple IIc (which my parents still have and it still runs!) to the Commodore and all the Windows permeations and then on to the Macs running Jaguar, Panther and Tiger, probably because we've always been careful with the machines and what we install in them and how we update them. I have always kept my computers on UPS' and un-plug them when storms brew outside. As it is I am still using my eight year old Windows 98 computer, (for games mostly) and it still runs quicker than most peoples windows pcs and it's only a 740 Megahertz.
I haven't had to re-install anything, especially on this lovely little Mac Mini until now and wouldn't have in this situation, had I known more. I had taken the little Mac Mini in for a Procare "Tune-Up," only four days before the big up-date disaster. Not sure what they did to my mac in the tune-up but the guy gave me back the machine assuring me that the computer was perfect with no problems in answer to my asking "were they sure?" Even after the Genius Bar techs at the Apple Store re-installed the OS to fix the big problems it seems that no one ever thought to run verify disk. Had the Genius Bar techs at the time of the tune-up done this, or at least told me to do this, the last security update would not have wrecked so much havoc. It was only after I got the machine back from Apple that second time that I found that the directory had been corrupted when I ran disk verify. Actually it is amazing that I have had this little Mac Mini for so long and so not have had any problems on it that I would be able to go so long without having to know this really pretty important aspect of keeping one's mac in good running shape. I had been running maintenance scripts and permissions verify and repair and thought that was all there was to it. Silly! You know... that really is a testimony of how nice these little machines are.
Anyway... experience is a good teacher and I have learned so much it's actually been great! This stuff is pretty interesting.
Now... on to Leopard!
Thanks so much and you have a great New Year! -Charlotte

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