although the x201 doesn't support it, if you are getting a Lenovo to replace that one in time, i would look into an mSATA card. it goes in your WAN slot and is an SSD, and you can still have a mechanical HDD (or SSD) in the main bay for storage and put your OS on the mSATA.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...view,3449.html

also, i would not keep the SSD too full as it can shorten the life over time. here is an SSD guide, that is pretty typical, in the first link of this forum post, but i agree with the second posters changes to the guide (which are significant). but you should be aware of the falsities out there as well.
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-St...rs/td-p/104886

and a fresh install is always best, although not as fun as a clone, but enjoy your SSD it can revive an old system for sure.

i would always always recommend an offsite backup of your important files. an external drive is not a backup plan (as stated here). i like spideroak but there are many cloud providers.