[/Ouch, yeah my SSD was pretty cheap and I guess I get what I pay for, haha. QUOTE]
No mate don't get me wrong my first SanDsik was the same a you have it is still miles ahead of a spinner.
Now as for a brand well yes Samsung are good and usually have the longest warranty BUT I don't think the lifetime of an SSD is of all that much importance to me to be honest.
I used to use and still do have 250GB drives but just lately have been drawn to 500GB as the price difference is not that great and it can accommodate dual boot just like I did with my small laptop 7 & 10.
So I look for deals on Samsungs, and Crucial's in the main but SanDisk does beat them for price and personally as an average user the read/write rates are mainly for those who game a lot or just like bragging.
I would like to eventually try the Corsair, Seatool and WD brands but I have a growing collection of spares as it is.
Now just a little thing I do like to do is get a small SSD install all I want onto it and then clone it to a larger one and if the clone goes south the original is set up ready to go. But I do have a reasonable budget of course.
Anyway have a read of this to get a bit more out of your system
Just a little something that will make your machine a little faster and more efficient is this
Optimize Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
It is my bible when installing an OS on my machines and also when I am fixing friends and family machines too.
Now if you go through it slowly you will find lots of tweaks and they are all really thoroughly done by the authour Brink a fellow who is in my mind brilliant and if you need to ask questions he is just the most obliging person around.
The other thing is that you may lose some of the "bling" such as transparency (you don't have to I find it unnecessary) and all the tweaks are reversible.
If you do get stuck just post back in that tutorial and you will get help. Another bonus using this tutorial is that it helps you find your way around your machine and Windows 7!
Just one tip I would say you start with is do this
Registry - Backup and Restore - Windows 7 Help Forums do this and it will save you a lot of grief if you are ever doing things in the registry and even if you don't it is a good back up to have if your system ever gets corrupted.
(pretyped to save time)
TZ mate that looks like "something that has been left half in and half out of the sun