Had a quick look at the spec, 6GB ram, core I7, not bad gpu, and a 500GB 7200 HDD at the moment, so not a bad laptop, not too old and maybee worth the cash to upgrade, the swap should be simple harware wise, you could use clone software too like clonezilla.
An SSD would give better read/write speeds leading to faster boot and loading times as Blackwidow said. At the moment there are lots of SSD deals about, should be able to get one for around £90 check hotukdeals etc.