Apple Migration Assistant Cleanup
If you get a new Intel Mac, I highly recommend using the Migration Assistant to transfer, users, settings, files, apps, etc... I also recommend that you do some cleanup after the move.
When I moved from my iMac (PowerPC) to my MacBook Pro (Intel) I noticed that apps were crashing and things were fast, but sometimes sluggish too. I did some research and there wasn't much out there to help. Then I opened my Activity Monitor and set the columns to show a field called "Kind." This tells you whether a running process is Intel or PowerPC natively.
Since PowerPC processes require Rosetta, they can slow things down if there are things running in the background. For instance, Migration Assistant grabbed my entire HP Deskjet install which was PowerPC only and copied it over. There were about 6 processes running at startup that required Rosetta. Huge memory and processor hogs.
I also found a "qmaster" daemon running which was part of Final Cut Studio that I did not want running on my MacBook. It was also PowerPC. I quit these processes, then used Spotlight to find all the files and delete them. Restarted, and there's a noticeable difference.
Some applications must be run under Rosetta, but if there are little things running in the background like this, zap em and you'll enjoy a much smoother Intel ride.
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