Like this one?

The Newegg reviews show a 16% 6% failure rate within the first six months. Now, I understand that someone whose new SSD catches on fire is more likely to write a review (positive or negative) than someone whose drive installs easily and works flawlessly. Still, there does seem to be a higher failure rate than I am comfortable with.

I don't understand SATA vs SATA II vs SATA III. I do have one available SATA slot left on my motherboard, although it is flaky enough that I have stopped using it with my externmal eSATA backup drive. I suspect the problem is not with the SATA connection on the motherboard, but rather some incompatibility and general unhappiness between my computer and the external Vantec dock. The Vantec works perfectly when connected via USB, but more often than not locks up the computer when connected by SATA. USB runs at 1/10 the speed. Not a deal breaker, I run my backups overnight unatttended in any case.

Anyway, my computer was built in 2006 or 2007, was pretty state of the art back then, is still a pretty kick-ass machine with dual-core 3GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 6 TB hard drive, 27" monitor, big NVidia graphics card... but it is probably just plain SATA (not SATA II or III). Does this limit my options?

My 80 GB IDE system drive has been running 8-10 hours a day for six or seven years now, so it may be getting kind of tired. Over that time period I have never re-loaded the OS (Windows Vista) and a LOT of software has come and gone during that time. My bootup time is now around six or seven minutes so a nuke and repave would not be unwarranted, although it has been rock solid during all that time.

The SMART data on the system drives looks OK, but that is ignorance speaking. I really don't understand what it is saying.

I dunno... the [relatively] high failure rate of SSDs still has me a bit spooked, and I guess when an SSD fails it is pretty much 100% gone. Instantly. With a HDD you frequently have warning signs of impending failure. My backups are good enough I wouldn't lose any significant data, but reinstalling and reconfiguring all my software as part of the recovery process just isn't something I want to deal with very often. A quick check of my Control Panel shows 164 installed programs. Admittedly, at least half of them I would NOT reinstall, but still...

tanstaafl.