Good stuff. Thanks for the post. Now if they would only bring those prices down! I know the 40gb size is fine for an XP system but I run a dedicated 250GB OS drive on Win7 x64 and I use about 150gb of that space with nothing more than the OS and programs. Using Seagate ES series (platter type) with 5 year warranty. On Win7 x64 you can allocate mega amounts of disc space for gobacks, shadows, hyberfile and pagefile. And it pays off. Even if you pull the power cord from the wall, everything you were doing is there when you boot up. It's happened a few times by my own stupidity. Maybe by the next build the prices will be easier to stomach.
The 320 is a SATA II drive.. the latest and greatest are SATA III (must have SATA III controller to take advantage of the increased performance).... OCZ Vertex 3 leads the way on speed. As for type and capacity, most of the mainline SSDs (including this Intel 320) are about the same cost/GB. There are some budget lines at lower cost and less performance. The prior Intel X25-M was generally perceived as being among the most reliable of SSDs... By offering a longer warranty, Intel apparently believes the 320 to be equally reliable or better.