Clean install or clone current drive?

Clean install, aways clean install.

 

Clean installs are usually a waste of time. But when you are installing onto a new drive you end up doing them by default. I'd install the system software and migrate (I usually put the drive I yank from the machine into an enclosure and then migrate from that). A clone would work, but it's slower. Copying data manually is also unnecessary and a time waster, unless you have a bare minimum of stuff. If for some reason you have hassles with the migration you can always just reformat the drive and proceed with one of the slower methods.

 

Migrate - Migration Assistant?

By "migrate", do you mean install the OS and then use Migration assistant to migrate everything over?

I would just be concerned because I'll be using a Solid State Drive that's smaller than my hard drive, so I'd end up having to temporarily relocate files to another drive ahead of time and the copy them back over, which could take a couple days. I think I'd just go with a clone.

 

Clean install and copy over any essentials.

 

I have never done a clean install since the intel macs came out. I upgrade 6 different macs and always clone for speed. OSX is not dirty like XP. Cloning is fine: Unless you ARE having problems. If all is well, clone.