Replacing SSD in New Laptop - Help Needed

Here I clone the drive and then put the new drive into the laptop and start using the laptop.

I'm not a fan of clean install and find that many folk remove apps that are needed for today's newer PCs.

Since you bought new RAM, I'd replace that first and test the laptop's operation for a short while to make sure the new hardware is functioning properly. This would also be a good time to remove any old programs that you don't want or plan to upgrade. Now cloning really means going directly from one disk to another and laptops don't always allow for that. I've had mixed results trying to clone from a PC or laptop to an external USB device so, with laptops, I prefer to make a complete hard drive image and place it on such as an external USB drive. I remove the old drive and put the new drive in its place. Then, I restore the image to the new drive. Be aware that sometime changing a recovery partition size can render it useless. If your laptop has a recovery partition you want to keep, don't use any automatic proportioning method with your cloning/imaging software. Keep the recovery partition the same size as it was. You shouldn't need to reinstall Windows or any of your existing programs. They should all be there like nothing happened. Since you're going from an SSD to a larger SSD, don't expect a huge performance bump. Even if your new SSD drive is potentially faster, it will be limited by the SATA connection in the laptop. Good luck.

I purchased it (Acer As 8950G) know I wanted to add memory and a SSD. They default configuration came with a 750 gb HD and 8 gb of ram. I ordered the SSD at the same time as the laptop. I ordered the SSD as a kit and it came with cloning software (Acronis) and an external drive case (USB 2.0). at first I tried to clone the drive but it has an issue with finding the target. Then I remembered the laptop had 1 USB 3 and 3 USB 2 ports. I plugged the target into a USB 2 port and it cloned fine. I put the ssd in and moved the HD to a second bay and things worked fine. I actually got a big SSD later and cloned it and it also worked withput an issue. I later added the memory first as I went from 8 gb to 12 gb. It was noticeable difference so I decided to go to 16 and from 12 to 16 wasn't as noticeable. This laptop i bought in 2011. I bought an Alienware 18 in 2014 and it came with 16 gb of ram and a 256 GB SSD and 1 TB HD. I got the 16 GB of ram because it had 4 memory slots (2 visible and 2 needed the keyboard removed to get to). I don't like to remove keyboard on laptops so I didn't want to add memory after purchase. The SSD was MSATA (smaller size) and I purchased a Samsung 840 Evo 1 tb and replaced the 256 that came with the AW. I bought a MSATA external USB case and I use the SSD as an external.
I also had replaced the secondary hard drive 750 gb with a 1 TB HD in the Acer before i bought the AW so i had an extra 750 gb which i added to the AW. My AW now has a 1 TB SSD MSATA and 2 drives 1 TB and 750 gb. If I ever neede it I could remove the optical drive and replace it with a SSD or HD. I could also use RAID if i wished.

So I would look to see if you can find the design of your laptop and see how visible your memory slots are. My Acer all 4 slots were visible by removing the back case and the AW only 2 were visible removing the back.

have you bought it yet? if not, maybe shop in those BTO channels like Xotic, CUK, HID, Gentech, etc? you can choose and customize your spec.