Before installing I replaced the 5400 rpm HDD by an ADATA sata-600 120GB SSD. That was the hardest part.
I booted a 12.2 KDE Live USBstick, performed a default install, approx 5 minutes, restored /home and some other stuff from a backup from on an SSD with mini USB, done. Back up and running with all my stuff in 3 hours. Both laptop and openSUSE 12.2 are fast, fast, fast.