SSD: is Intel X-25M the best choice

I will go for SSD soon, but haven't not decided which one to buy yet. X-25M is quite known for its reputation, but I doubt that is it the best choice. What about models from Crucial, OCZ..., I read some reviews but don't know about real-life usage? My budget is about 180$, and should not be over 200$. 64-80GB is enough for me.

Thanks in advance

 

you'll be hard pressed to find an Intel X-25M 80GB for less than $200 (maybe ebay)

Kingston makes some decent G2 SSD's too I've heard

 

I'm actually going to pick up the Intel X-25M 80GB SSD myself later as I heard good reviews though they're a bit pricey however. I haven't heard major reliability issues from other users of the Intel drive plus they tend to be slightly faster than the OEM Samsung SSD that Lenovo issues.

I did have a 120GB Corsair Reactor SSD since they had it on offer but the drive was so horrid that I just have to return it within a day. Occasionally it would play hide and seek so it would not appear on boot for no good reason. It’s quite a common complaint on the Corsair forums with no real solution on hand, they're still not sure what's the cause of it at the time of writing. So based on that experience I would advise against buying a Corsair SSD, especially the Reactor drives as it gave me nothing but problems (4x Error 2100 - Hard drive initialization errors" in 1 day )

 

I'll sell you my 80GB G2 for $200.

 

I have it in my desktop and would recommend the OCZ Agility 2/Vertex 2 if you don't mind having 60GB instead of the 80GB. The Agility 2/Vertex 2 not only has faster sequential read&write speed, but the random read & write speeds are as fast the Intel SSD. To make things even nicer, they were available as low as $100 (before Bing cash back ended).

 

As denthope said OCZ Agility 2/Vertex 2 are good drives. Crucial C300 is also really fast. While Intel has been tested and proven it is lossing or probably has lost its edge.
In terms of your budget you can get a Corsair Nova 64GB for under 200. I have it and it is depenedable. While it might not be the very best it can certainly hold its own and is probably top five in my eyes.

 

I bought an OCZ Vertex 2 120Gb due to several benches I've seen on various websites that have shown it (with the latest 1.10 firmware) to equal or better the Intel drives by significant amounts.

And with Bing, I ended up paying about $270.