Upgrading Late 2007 Mac Book Pro to Snow Leopard

[nikhilno1]

I have a late 2007 Intel Core 2 Duo MBP which came with Tiger.
I then upgraded to Leopard using my cousin's DVD.
Didn't upgrade to Snow Leopard since I wasn't using it much.
Now I want to upgrade to Snow Leopard. (I'm little apprehensive about upgrading to Lion after reading some reports about problems faced by early intel based Macs)
I understand that direct upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard generally works.
In my case, I have leopard installed but don't have install DVD.

I read that doing a fresh install is better. Can I do a fresh install with the $29 Snow Leopard DVD?
I am guessing that not having leopard DVD would not make any difference whatsoever. (I mean it shouldn't happen that some screw up happens and I have to go back to Tiger and then I'm one of those unlucky few who cannot upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard)

Also whats the general opinion for my generation of Macs? Should I upgrade to Lion or stay content with Snow Leopard?

I know I'm very late in the game. But better late than never

 

[bizzle]

You can install directly from the $29 disk from Tiger to Snow Leopard or a clean install. The license does state you need to own Leopard though.