SSD Choice

[Xebadir]

So I've gone and bought a new (secondhand but barely used) laptop, clean installed windows, and then have discovered its fitted with a Patriot PS-100 128GB SSD after I noticed some performance issues - which is not performing well and is more than a little unstable with files doing random disappearing acts (especially given the remainder of the system is quite stupidly powerful and fast). I'm now looking at my options to upgrade the SSD to something that is going to be faster (the patriot is maxxed out at SATA II, So hence I am looking at SATA III), possibly higher capacity (given prices are coming down), and is going to be a nice stable platform for me to work on and use. If it wasn't for the instability I was noticing I would be happy with the patriot, but given its the only weakness in the system I need to do something about it.

If anyone has any experience with the following, I would love to hear your opinions, and if you know any other models that do a good job, would really like to hear about it.

My ideas thus far:
Crucial M4 128GB SATA III- This thing is known to work with my laptop, good price, highly reliable and fast.
Samsung 830 128GB SATA III- From what I have read this thing is like the crucial a standard to be compared against.
Sandisk Extreme 128GB SATA III SSD - Somewhat cheaper, but looks to compete well with the big boys.

I probably can't afford to go above the price for the 128s as my budget post laptop purchase is limited.

[etherial]

I did quite a bit of research into SSD's in the last month to upgrade my system (desktop). If you google "SSD review" you will find a heap of places that review them and benchmark them etc.

After a lot of research I ended up going for the Sandisk Extreme 240GB which cost me $249. It was in the top three on most of the benchmarks and received very good reviews and was MUCH cheaper than the SSDs it was competing with. I posted the search and the installation experience here: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?106455-SSD-Options-for-SPEEEEEED

[Xebadir]

Thanks for that Etherial. I ended up looking around quite a bit and went with a 128GB Samsung 830 with the Norton Ghost/Sata USB Laptop installation set. I woud have loved to lash out and get a bigger one, but just can't justify it (and like you heard alot of nice things about that Sandisk, but for reasons of compatability on my PC (SATA III stuff) I decided to defer to the Sammy). Paid $160 shipped to my door, so not too bad at all (coming from the states). Looking forward to seeing just how blazingly fast I can get my system running with it installed.

[nogi]

I have had many SSDs in the past and have been using them since day 1. Brands I've had to date include Crucial, OCZ, Intel, ADATA, Samsung and GSkill. They have all been good and have all at one time or another had some bad press with bad/early firmware releases that resulted in dead drives or loss of data.

Right now, I have the Crucial (brought directly from them online) in my Win 7 laptop, Samsung on my iMac and Intel G2 in my PS3. Before you head down the SATA3 path, make sure you have a SATA3 interface in your 2nd hand laptop otherwise you are not going to benefit much from the extra speed supported by the drive.

As for your existing drive, I would be ensuring that you have the most upto date firmware, performing a format (check their forums for best tool to use to give you a clean format) and doing a fresh install. A couple of things could be wrong with the drive now. e.g. misalignment and TRIM no being enabled to name a couple.