I just went through exactly what you're thinking about doing with my HP notebook. It originally came with a 320GB HDD. I swapped that out for an Intel 80GB SSD. Before doing the deed, I researched how to properly configure a SSD and found there was a lot of "information" out there; some of it good and some of it not so good. I also have found that Intel doesn't seem to have a good, well written, step-by-step guide as to what needs to be configured and how to do that.
What I learned is that if you simply create an image of what's on your HDD and then dump it onto your SSD, the partition starting offset may not be correct. If it's not, you'll be causing your new SSD to wear out prematurely. This is true of all SSDs no matter the manufacturer.
OCZ, on the other hand, has an extensive guide on how to install and configure their SSD products at: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?79848-THE-BASIC-GUIDE-amp-FAQ-ABC-for-OCZ-SSD.
In any event, in my opinion and in my pocketbook, installing a SSD is well worth the time and money spent. The speed increase is similar to what people who migrate from a dialup Internet connect to a broad band connection experience. For notebooks it's also beneficial in that when you move a running notebook around, picking it up, putting it down, shifting its position, you place a lot of stress on the HDD's disk and read/write head bearings. Since a SSD has no moving parts, you avoid the movement/stress problem.
I hope this helps.