Revitalising a 4 years old Thinkpad Edge 14'

i just got my hands on a old but well taken care thinkpad edge 14
the specs are as per this link
http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-14-review/
but in a nutshell, this runs on a i3 m330 2.13 ghz,4gb ram, 320gb hdd and intel graphics
going to use it for normal day to day browsing, hd videos and word processing
the only fault is that the battery has died but its a small issue since it is only used at home and i keep it on ac power.
i am thinking of pulling out the rams and upgrade to 8gb and install win 7 64bit.
i also wld like to install a ssd as a primary partition and the default 320gb as a storage only.
like to check if these upgrades are feasible, esp for the ssd since i am not certain the dvd drive is swappable so that i plug in a ssd into a cage, and also what connection it is using?msata?
would appreciate if anybody who used to own the same model to advise if they did any upgrades. also would like to know where i can find the instruction manual that typically show users how to change parts.
thanks.

 

The DVD drive is fixed and not removable, I know that much, so you won't have the option of doing dual drives unless maybe you can use a mSATA SSD in the Mini PCIe slot (not sure if this model supports that). Lenovo keeps a lot of their old product documentation online so you can search for Edge 14 product and see upgrade videos here:

Lenovo Support - Product & Parts Detail (US)

Example support document for the Edge 14 here:

Wireless WAN (WWAN) slot cover and PCI Express Mini Card for WWAN removal and installation - ThinkPad Edge 14 and 15

You can still find batteries for the Edge 14 for sale as well via Lenovo.com, in case you decide to be mobile with your laptop. Good luck with your project to revitalize this system!

 

The WD Black2 may be a good choice. It's a 128gb SSD and a 1tb HDD on one physical drive:

WD Black²

 

i just completed the revitalisation, was pretty simple actually.
i decide to retain my existing rams as i realised that it was very hard to find a pair of 4GB*2 for ddr3 1066mhz..they are rare and expensive
not to mention that windows 8.1 could run smoothly on 4GB.
ended up the upgrade i did was to get a hdd caddy from ebay, took out the dvd drive and plugged in the 320gb hdd as a secondary drive.
managed to snag a second hand intel x25m g2 80gb ssd and plugged into the main sata port.
all in all the upgrade took me abt us$50, and an additio al us$20 for a screen protector and a case.
pleased with the performance and it runs as smooth as my win 8.1 tablet and with a bigger screen to boot