Upgrade to SSD or buy a new laptop advice for X200

I've got an X200 and it's been working well for 2 years. It's probably been the most reliable laptop I've ever had. But has been showing it's age for what I do with it (virtual machines, programming). I was thinking to maybe get an SSD to replace the slow HDD I got with it and also to put in 8GB RAM vs the 3 I have now. That would leave just the CPU as the slow part. My CPU has gone up to 100% when using virtuals.

My other thought was to buy a new laptop. Most likely I'd look at another X2xx series laptop because I really like the portability + power/performance + battery life + keyboard it offers.

So, I'd like to ask some people who probably know more about this stuff than I do. Would you upgrade or buy new one? Would my upgrade improve the performance of the machine? Are i5/i7 CPUs so much more better than the core duo CPU where I'd notice a big performance difference? Are there any new models coming out this year?

As Thinkpad users are there any other 12-13" laptops that look good? I think the new ultraportables seem cool but the non replaceable batteries and non upgradeable RAM and storage don't sound so good.

 

If you're someone who needs top performance, if you can hang out just a bit longer, Ivy bridge isn't that far off. It should offer better performance than the X200 or X220. You might just want to buy an SSD anyway as you can put it a new machine as well.

I think the new X220, whatever it ends up being, will offer swappable batteries, upgradeable memory and hard drives.

 

Thanks for the reply ZaZ. Sounds like upgrading now would be a good way to go for now. Good to know that a new CPU is not that far off. I'll wait to see how that goes.