Solidworks does seem to run on older hardware, but things like rebuild time are going to suffer. In more complex parts or assemblies this is going to be notable. Good single thread performance is going to make life a bit easier there, but that does not necessarily mean you have to get a top of the line i7.
I have seen Solidworks being run on really old hardware and that seemed to work out decently until largish assemblies came into play. It is a complex program though, so if you can avoid old hardware it would probably be best. Compared to the price of the software hardware is not that expensive.
Let me guess, a SSD with a Sandforce controller, not unlikely one from OCZ? Those numbers are highly inflated, as they come from benchmark tests under ideal conditions writing strictly perfectly compressible data to the drive in the form of zeros. Consumers fall for those in droves, but the truth is those drives perform no better than other popular options.
Especially the Vertex 2 and 3 seem to have some reliability issues. Making backups is always a good idea, but even more so if you own either of those series.
I case of a PCIe slot in drive I said nothing