Need help on external hdd and if I should get a new hdd or SSD.

I have a 250GB 5400 RPM OEM drive from Lenovo and I've been wanting to upgrade for a while. Of course it's unnecessary, but it would be a lovely increase to my performance. I think it's my current bottleneck (maybe.)

I have a Lenovo T500 with the following:
HDD: 250GB 5400 RPM
CPU: C2D P8700 (2.53GhZ)
GPU: Ati HD 3650
RAM: 4GB DDR3

I never thought I would need space since I'm not the person to download/store/ etc. on my hdd. All I had was school files, which could hardly even take up 1GB (atleast for now) and some games/software. It all changed when I went to college. I ripped many of my DVDs and started downloading a lot more here, since it's much more convenient with the little physical space I have.

Anyway, my 250GB is running out of space and I need suggestions on what to buy. My plan is to put this HDD in an enclosure so I can put my videos/music/etc in it. I'm thinking either a Hitachi Travelstar 7k500 (7200RPM 500GB) for 79.99 AR on tigerdirect (rebates suck + taxes/shipping).
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5509442&CatId=2682
or I need help getting an appropriate, best bang for the buck, SSD. I think 64GB would be the appropriate size for the 10-15GB W7 Home Premium OS, 20GB of games, and 5GB (growing) music (so I can sync my iTunes to my phone). Then other miscellaneous software and others. I am willing to spend 200$~ if it's absolutely worth it. I'm quite novice on SSD, all I know is that they are not mechanical, they are much more efficient, they are costly, they have less space, and they are faster. I don't know which ones are the best performing, etc.

I'm also wondering how I would go about installing my OS, software, etc. If I currently have all my stuff on my HDD and I want to format it so I get rid of all the software and only keep data/videos/music/etc, how am I supposed to transfer my current ~50GB of data?

 

i bump and also need help with partition my hdd in this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5932825#post5932825

 

I'd get the 7K500.

 

Any particular reasons why I should get it over an SSD?

 

It saves you a lot of hassle. (keeping the OS small, moving applications, connecting your external drive over and over etc)

 

Do you believe that the performance gain of an SSD is not worth it? I don't mind connecting the external for when I want to watch a movie, and I might in the future have more than what the 500GB could hold, so... Also i think it's enough space to hold my program files and OS.

 

Suggest a Intel X25M G2 SSD via primary bay and a HDD via an ultrabay caddy. That way can have speed and capacity on the go. If need an optical drive, convert existing unit to e-sata or USB unit. See this link for some ideas.

 

Interesting proposition there... I indeed seldom if not never use my optical drive... but wouldn't this be more costly and difficult?

Reading your article now...

 

Difficult? No. Costly? Depends if an extra $31 is a lot to you.

US$13-delivered ebay T500 ultrabay adapter
US$18-delivered 9.5mm sata/usb dvd enclosure

 

I never trusted ebay... can I trust these sellers and these to be functional? Also, I see a small problem. What if I wanted that data on another computer or my T500 busts? Seems like i'd have to get an external enclosure anyway.

 

nando4 has a great point... if i could, +rep

 

Yes you can. And ebay has money-back terms (I think)
anyway, I have 2 hdds in my notebook (Thx to nando4)

 

I edited a little, but to reiterate, I see a small problem. If my T500 doesn't work anymore or I wanted to transfer the files, I'd still need to be an external enclosure then right?

And also, i'm a complete noob, will the USB optical drive work fine when I clean install windows on a fresh hdd?

 

I had a 80GB Intel G2 but switched to a 500GB 7K500. Ok it's a bit slower but more than fast enough.

I'm a light user though. I'm rarely waiting for my HDD.

 

7K500 is way cheaper and should be an upgrade.. of course if u want to reach for the moon get the Intel G2 SSD... I would personally recommend u get the combo nando recommended... It would be great and u would have no lack of speed or space... and ebay might not be reliable sometimes but the links nando has given will work perfectly since many would have bought from them..