How to set up mail and news accounts (secondary select methods or via server buffer)?

[Friedericksen Hope]

Hello,

I am new to gnus and overwhelmed from the many exciting possibilities. First of 
all, thank you very much for this nice software!

I've read through the manual and I wonder what the normal or suggested way is 
to set up several mail and news accounts?
As far as I understood it, there are two (neglecting primary-select-method) 
main ways to set up several news- and mail servers:

(1) via the gnus-secondary-select-methods variable
(2) via the function gnus-server-add-server (a in server buffer)

What are the differences and which one is suggested? A main difference seem to 
be the storage location? (1) saves it obviously in .gnus, (2) in .newsrc.eld?

Thank you in advance!

Best wishes,
Friedericksen